Jupiter's Curse
by Ranowa Hikura
Summary: While Matthew and company race around to try and end the eclipse, Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia try to do their own part in saving those trapped in it. The mission goes awry when Ivan is left stranded in an eclipsed forest, and comes across something that he can not handle. Slight implied mudshipping (in ch. 2), slight implied sandstormshipping.
1. Chapter 1

Because I recently was fooling around with DD for an experiment with collision detectors (endless wall glitch cough cough) and got inspired. And, as I am totally uninspired by DD's 5 semi ish cool characters and 3 joining to make 8 characters, and it's been way too long since I played TLA, it stars Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia. Note that if you look closely when/if you return to Kaocho, the corpses are actually skeletons, and the monsters there have names like "Bone Gnawer" and "Foul Glutton". ...So, it's not just my sick imagination. Camelot actually has you looking around a town where the people get eaten.

Will be two chapters long. Second chapter will have a little bit hinted at mudshipping, if that's your thing (apparently it's mine!) and a little bit hinted at sandstormshipping. For now, enjoy the gen.

Also, this is my first serious try at writing horror. I need some real practice. Feedback, please? Haha, I hope you enjoy :)

Special thanks to my real life friend J who betaed this for me! And so quickly, too! You're awesome!

* * *

The nightmare closed in around Ivan in one fell swoop when his legs at last gave out on him, and he sunk to the ground.

There was nowhere left to run.

Howls split the night, echoing over the empty stretch of sky devoid of both moon and stars, and he trembled, trying with everything he had not to give in. He could hear the creatures all around him, an otherworldly hiss crawling up the dying trees and a rippling _something _twitching along the earth towards him at every angle, and it was already far more than he could take. He stumbled backwards until he slammed against a solid tree, chest heaving. He,looked around feverishly, searching in vain. The creatures were everywhere but invisible, the sounds of their approach unbearably loud until they echoed in his ears, but he could see nothing but darkness. The bloody mist rolled over the forested hill in a suffocating and freezing blanket; Ivan sank deeper into himself, burying his head into his chest, the incessant trembling not lessening even enough for him to grip his staff.

The piercing wound in his chest throbbed again, a violent and bloodied sprawl of struggle hewn into his torso by an iron claw. He clutched his arm more tightly against it and huddled up closer, the rattling sound of his own breaths filling his ears just as loud as the dissonant cries of the approaching beasts.

"Ancients help me," he breathed, "_please." _

The sound of a branch snapping in the darkness was his only answer, and it most certainly was not the answer he wanted.

Gasping still, Ivan twisted his head around to stare at the blackness, his heart pounding. That was no twig; that snap had been like thunder in the silence.

_Craaaack._

He stumbled back jerkily in terror.

Whatever was coming was huge.

And it was near.

For the tenth time in as many minutes, exhaustion and pain both forgotten, Ivan twisted around to grapple at the swaying tree, pulling himself up in frantic hops and scrambling to crawl to the sky before _whatever that was _got closer. The mist only thickened the higher he climbed but he'd rather be blind than stuck down there one second longer. "Come on, _come on!_" he cried, blistered fingers fighting for any recourse they could find on the splintering wood. The sounds below were getting louder and it felt as if he was making no progress at all, the tops of the trees impossibly far away and getting even farther away with by the second-

"Wind's might, be with me, wind's might, be with me, wind's might, be with me," he chorused, shutting his eyes and the world out to focus purely on his inner strength. The rest of the world clamored for attention but he shut it out, funneling all the precious energy he had left into his hands and his staff. _"Wind's might... be with me!" _

A wave of Psynergy circled his feet and emerged from nothing, lifting him up to tear through the trees on the wings of Jupiter. Ivan cried out and reached skyward with all his strength, fingers stretching, heart begging for the safety in the sky even as the monsters on the ground rose in parallel. Almost there, almost there, _almost there-!_

"_YES!" _

Teeth snapped at his ankles, creatures of the night leaping at him from below, but there was no reaching at Jupiter adept in the skies. Er, trees. Close enough, for Ivan's tastes, close enough to safety when before he had been so utterly helpless. With a grunt, he carefully pulled himself higher, dangling in mid air stretching the wound that could not take much more. It was a difficult, near agonizing struggle to pull himself fully onto the branch, and he shut his eyes in pain, gasping all the way. If only he was more like his daughter... given the ability to heal instead of read minds...

But, that was neither here nor there, and hoping for what would never be would get him nowhere but dead. Based off the last few times this scenario had played itself out, he didn't have long, only a couple minutes at most before the monsters figured out how to climb the tree, and then there would be far too many of them to fight off.

Breathing hard, Ivan carefully dragged his eyelids open. His staff was slick in his hands and he planted it more firmly in the tiny branch, using it to anchor himself. Holding his breath, he looked down.

"By the Ancients," he gasped.

Well, his few minutes of respite had just transformed into nothing at all.

The darkness before him had transformed into a writhing mass of claws and talons, many legged beasts scrambling over one another to climb his tree. It shook back and forth, swaying under the pressure, the fighting body underneath him yanking his tree back and forth with such force it was all he could do to hang on.

Ivan let himself be tossed back and forth on the splintering tree like a rag doll. He clung on, even as he twisted back to look down again.

The screeching mass of animalistic shapes jumped and scratched and sprung from itself, tearing itself to pieces just to get to Ivan. There was a crazed, unintelligent ferocity to it, lacking even the basest sense of self-preservation.

All Ivan could see was the instinct to hunt, kill, and devour.

When one long, spindly arm ripped a rising head from the crowd straight off the neck so violently he heard the bones crack, Ivan gasped and shuddered in revulsion, rushing to bury his head in the crook of his arm. This did absolutely nothing to muffle the distinct sound of teeth crunching into flesh.

_May the elements help me..._

But if there was any hint of Venus or Mars, Jupiter or Mercury left in this now accursed world, Ivan saw none of it.

The continuing wave of monstrous assaults would guarantee that Ivan needed to get out of here, and get out of here now. They lacked the ability to fly or climb, but from the ground they possessed a tremendous force. They could and would force the tree to the ground- and Ivan was very quickly running out of places to hide.

A three-legged _something _tore free from the clutches of the herd and it lunged up with all the force of Jupiter itself, bursting skyward to latch onto the trunk a good ten feet off the ground. A snarling, canine face snapped up at him, salivating teeth sinking into the trunk. Red eyes flashed in the darkness, pupiless, soulless, nothing but _empty __scarlet orbs _waiting for him below.

Ivan could not help it- he screamed.

The tree rolled under the weight, bending severely to the side. Ivan clung on, whimpers torn from his throat as the beast slunk its way closer, crawling up the trunk faster and faster. It opened its disgusting jaws and licked its lips once.

"_Get away from me!_"

A sheer concussive gale blasted out from him with the force of his scream, one part defensive to nine parts sheer terror. He just started running, throwing himself off the branch and running before his feet had even hit the ground, sprinting over Jupiter's air and then Venus's earth. There was no pain. There was only the sound of his own screeching breaths and pounding feet, and the feel of his heart hammering its way through his chest so fast he could barely even manage to gasp for breath.

And he still ran with everything he had. Not towards safety, not towards the river, or Ayuthay, or Isaac... he just ran as fast as he could and as _away _from those _things _as he could get.

_Ancients, Jupiter, Isaac... SOMEBODY, HELP ME!_

Yet there was no help for the dammed.

Branches whipped him in the face, barbed tails and pointed, dagger-like claws snuck out from the shadows to reach and snag him fast, and every step he took there were more glistening red eyes waiting for him in the darkness. Ivan screamed again and with that lost himself to blind panic. He flung his staff out haphazardly, batting at the monsters from side to side and screaming all the while, screaming until his throat was hoarse and he couldn't hear anything but his own voice.

"_Get away from me! Stay back! Get away from me! ISAAC, HELP!" _

When Ivan saw at last the hints of human civilization peeking through the thinning trees, he spared no time for thought. He ran straight for them and hoped with everything he had left it would be safe.

Ivan tore through the destroyed gates without looking behind him, staff brandished over his head. He struck out at the immediate onslaught of shapes cloaked in the dark, ducking under the reaching hands and jumping over thumping tails and slimy teeth, on a flat out run for anything that was _not here. _When three spindly _somethings _bolted around his ankle, gripping so hard he was yanked down to slam against the ground on his stomach, his Psynergy reacted without any thought.

"_Destruct Ray!"_

One single harsh bolt of lightning arced down overhead to splinter the ground amid screeches and a high, dissonant scream, and carved out just a sliver he could worm through; a sliver was all he needed. He ripped free from the waning grip and sprinted through it in a beeline for the nearest door, and Ivan at last threw himself inside with a relieved and ragged gasp, tumbling head over heels to slam into the wall.

Finally- everything stopped.

His chest and head ached, he could barely breathe, his mind was still racing, and there was the sound of a rumbling storm of paper as books spilled down on top of him, but... no hissing. No footsteps. No licking of lips.

No monsters.

He closed his eyes with a shudder.

Ivan did not count the seconds, or the minutes, as it may have been; time ceased to exist, measured only in the length of his breath and the waning pain in his chest. He stayed slumped upside down against the wall, simply letting the blood rush to his head and for himself to breathe.

It was only when he felt and _knew _he was considerably calmer that, very carefully and slowly, Ivan stiffly unrolled himself and sat upright.

The door to the house was still open from his charge, and he pulled it shut with a slight gust of wind without pause. The poisonous mist that seemed to spawn those hellish beasts prowled along inside, too; by the elements, it was _everywhere, _but no red eyes shone from the darkness, and he took that to mean he was safe. For now.

Then he shook his head at himself, dismayed; it meant absolutely nothing in terms of safety. The half of Kalay covered by the eclipse had been overrun by creatures within _seconds. _Buildings meant nothing to these monsters. He could not rest simply because he was here. If anything could be described as the heart of enemy territory, this was it- and this eclipse was far more dangerous than any human enemy he had faced ever before. Ivan would rather climb a hundred lighthouses than stay here one second longer- and he had no other option but to stay trapped here in this desolate village and hope he could find one shard of sanctuary left in the world that was quickly becoming indistinguishable from hell on earth.

Ivan used his staff to pull himself to his feet, and was unprepared for the burst of pain jolting out of his adrenaline laden limbs; he would've fallen if he was not braced against the wall. Gritting his teeth, Ivan wound his whole arm tightly around his staff and limped forward as fast as he could, free hand pressing tightly against his middle. The blood seeped through still, warm and wet, and he very purposefully kept his eyes up.

The front area was a mess, probably from his crash landing, but there was nobody else in sight, so he carefully made his way around the corner- ball of wind clutched in his free hand the entire time. He gritted his teeth and barely made it through the last few steps. There, he found even more of a mess than before, but no signs of people- the disaster was probably from the hurried exodus from the city. He couldn't imagine that Kaocho, as militaristic as it was, would be foolish enough to not evacuate the moment its generals realized what was happening.

Though, where they would evacuate to, was another story... with this eclipse spreading as fast as it was...

In his search Ivan found a bed, and linens, and he smiled grimly with relief. Finally, some luck. He limped his way forward, dragging himself forward towards the temporary sanctuary.

A house would, hopefully, be far more defendable than a thin tree. But more problematic. If he waited here too long and was surrounded, it would be far more difficult to carve a way through the crowd and run, and in this constricted area it would be nearly impossible to fight. Ivan could only hope the walls here would hold for long enough for him to come up with a plan- and, to treat the wound that sluggishly bled still.

Mia's presence, and, later, Piers', too, had completely spoiled him when it came to dealing with injuries, but he'd had his own misadventures without them by his side. He tore the sheets into strips without looking, eyes only for the dark rip in his stomach. It looked like a normal wound, thank god; who knew what poison hid in those monster's teeth. Ivan worked feverishly and quickly, tying off and putting the desperately needed pressure over it.

The moment he pressed down, agony ripped through his chest in such a powerful whiplash the wind was knocked out of him.

"_Ah... ah... araaghhh!" _

Ivan cried out, ducking his head against his chest in a knee jerk reaction that curled him straight into the fetal position. A strangled moan dragged its way forth from his throat, so rough and raw it sounded to his ears to be more animal than human. He shut his eyes, gasping; entire world narrowing into one minuscule circle drawn around the hot waves of tortured agony radiating out from his center._ Good god that HURTS!_

But, the ticking clock still beat away in the back of his mind, and even as he sat slumped and wheezing and racked with pain, his right hand still worked over the pulsating wound in his chest.

He moved blindly, breathing hard through the tremors. His heart pounded with every second that he sat still, a painful reminder that _he was not safe, _and Ivan tried to work even faster, movements turning clumsy and jerky. The blood spilled between his fingers, hot and wet; the pungent smell made him cough and gag. With nothing available to clean it, Ivan was only able scrub away the blood stains and stop exposing the wound to air. Even if the pressure stung like nothing he had ever known.

He could barely think through the pain but started moving anyway- even as his staff trembled like a windswept branch scraping against a window. It looked gory and terrible and hurt worse than it looked. Applying pressure had only hurt worse, damn it- but was undeniably necessary. He forced his mind to wonder from the blackened slash under his hands, bolting his thoughts down on something that was helpful and not currently trying to drive him mad with pain. If Kaocho had evacuated, then they had to have evacuated somewhere. They hadn't gone to Ayuthay or Harapa- the only other option was some other safe place around here, as the military stronghold, as dangerous as it was, did not stand a chance against the eclipse. If he could find that same place, too...

He would be safe until he was strong enough to make it back to Ayuthay.

Yet, wandering around Kaocho lost was not an option.

Fingering his staff, Ivan moved to lean back against the wall, wincing with every move he made, and began to carefully weigh his options. He let his free hand fall to the side.

His heart stopped.

That... was not cloth.

That was absolutely not something that was supposed to be here.

It felt smooth. And fine, like dusty grit. And cold. And...

_And..._

His throat too tight to breathe, Ivan slowly turned to look down on the bed.

There was a skull on the bed.

A human skull. On the bed.

_What... _

_in the unholy hell... _

He would've like say the reason he collapsed was blood loss. Except he was fooling no one, and wouldn't have been even if he wasn't so dreadfully alone in this world that was fast descending into a nightmare.

And now, suddenly, the details of the room stood out to him with a terrifying clarity, and with each new revelation his heart sank even lower, and it got even harder to breathe.

This wasn't a mess because of any evacuation. This was not a mess of human design at all. The violently ripped tears in the curtain, the particularly vicious slash that tore the floorboards in two, the tipped over bookcase- the monsters had done this.

The red sprayed across the walls and splattered along the ceiling was, simply put, not the mist.

And that half of an arm hanging off the windowsill was not a macabre piece of Kaocho furniture.

Ivan stared closer and almost gagged. That was an actual _arm, _still half clothed in blue silk just sitting on the window, bare bones still curled in a fist. It ended at the wrist and near where the shoulder would be... black-red and gruesome ends of bone and flesh...

It looked like it had been gnawed off.

Then Ivan actually did gag.

_Dear god... _

He looked back to the skull on the bed, bile rising. It was just that, a skull, but here and there- still bloodied bits of skin and flesh clinging to it. The chin was missing a torn out chunk, and the spot where the ear should've been was broken through by teeth marks.

The contents of his stomach rose, and Ivan shut his eyes and heaved.

_This person... these people..._

They had been eaten alive.

* * *

Time no longer existed once again. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, it could have even been days; while the sun no longer rose, Ivan had no way of telling. The passage of time only existed in the sluggish pulse of his blood beating through his fingers, drop after drop slugging down to mingle with the dried blood on the floor.

Ivan watched it mix with the last person's to stand where he did now, drop after drop spiraling into deep, scarlet furrows to turn and fade black until there was no difference between past and present at all.

Somehow, sometime, the senselessness began to reorient itself around him, and he found himself again. The nausea did not abate, but he could breathe without becoming sick.

The horror did not vanish, or even slink away to reign up again another time, but now he could breathe through it.

He had to get out of here. His skin crawled with every second he stayed trapped in this house, death sentence turned utterly intolerable with what- with what had happened here. Any physical pain nothing but a distant memory, Ivan shot upright, wavering and sick, and he made one desperate lunge towards the door before the ever thickening mists caught his eye again, and he froze. Where the hell was he supposed to go? Back to try and make it _out there _again?! No!

But where else in the city could he hide?

If the monsters had gotten here- who was to say they hadn't gotten farther?

For all he knew, this had happened in every home in the city.

His bile rose again, and Ivan stumbled against the wall, struggling to hold down his revolting insides once again.

No. No. This couldn't be the case everywhere he looked; this absolutely _could not _have happened everyone in the city! Kaocho wasn't full of idiots; Kaocho was the fortress of southern Angara! With their generals and their army, their king and their palace- they would not have foolishly remained here as sitting ducks when the monsters came in. There had either been a full scale battle here in Kaocho, or a full scale evacuation- and the unfortunate soul in this house had either been caught in the crossfire, or had simply been too slow. That was simply all there was to it.

_The rest of the homes in this city... _

_This can't have happened to them..._

Shuddering, Ivan squared his shoulders and mentally forced that line of the thought to end.

All he had to do was figure out whether or not Kaocho had tried to stand and fight, or run. That was all he had to do; those were the only two options. This person here was the exception to either plan; the one that had not escaped.

If it was a battle, well, the Kaochian army had clearly lost, and he was in the roughly same situation as before. But that evacuation... even the possibility of it...

Ivan turned back to face the massacre, and swallowed.

The fact that he knew exactly what he had to do did nothing to help the rising sickness.

The Psynergy welled up in his palms against his bidding and far before he was ready; his trembling legs moved and straightened without any command on his part. Ivan shut his eyes, unwilling to watch or see that ruined corpse again, his fingers trembling even as they reached forward- knowing somehow exactly what had to be done... even though Ivan could not face it himself.

Did not want to face it.

His powers worked of their own free will, and the last coherent thoughts of the dead echoed through his mind.

_The monsters opened the door. Who would've thought monsters could open doors? Dear god, please don't let my son come back! _

Ivan swallowed again, the revulsion welling within him.

So, the person had been hiding, not running. Hiding implied Kaocho had tried to stand and fight.

He had not been too slow- the monsters had simply been too quick.

He was alone here, then.

Ivan dropped back against the wall, head in his hands.

There remained many options before him still, of course. He was not simply a person with a sword and a shield. He had Jupiter's might on his side, and four decades of experience. He may not have faced a worldwide catastrophe or the beginnings of the _apocalypse, _but fighting through four ancient lighthouses had not left him helpless. Granted, he'd never been in a situation as bad as this before- but he had to be versatile. He had to adapt. He had to find some way to hold out until Isaac, Garet, and Mia came back.

Which could take days.

The realization made him shudder. They had no idea where he was. El-Jei was not small and it would even be harder to search, with four cities to its name along with a mountain pass and a winding river- and Isaac and the others had absolutely no idea where he was. They had left him at the forest, and he was _not _going back in there.

It would be days before they found him.

Ivan sank deeper into himself and moaned.

It wasn't until minutes later, when his chest started to twinge again, that he forced himself back into action. Then, he at last dragged himself upright, and dusted himself off. He glanced around the home again, deliberately avoiding any hint towards the sight that had sent him to his knees. "I must find higher ground," he muttered to himself. "The palace would be good. That's far from here, though; I'll have to be ready to run as so-"

The door's hinges creaked.

...

Then they did it again- louder, longer, and far more deliberate.

_...It is just the wind. It is just the wind. That is all it is. It is just the wind._

Step.

..._It's not the wind._

Step.

His heart thumped painfully hard, and uncomfortably loud.

Step. Step. Step.

"_The monsters opened the door. Who would've thought monsters could open doors?"_

Step.

_Oh, god, no. Oh, god, no. Please, please, please no... no no no..._

Step.

One of those _things _that had torn this person to shreds-

_It was here?! _

Step.

A single glimpse of the remains of the arm left behind to carelessly rot, and Ivan found himself rooted to the spot. That- that _thing _had done _that- _and it was _here-!_

He felt himself being stretched and tugged in two utterly opposite directions at once. The sheer injustice, the horribleness of it all- that monster had ripped these people apart!- it filled Ivan to the core and he found himself suddenly shaking with rage, anger burning so hot he saw red. These _things _had murdered these people in the worst way possible and they still prowled on to murder again-

Ivan wanted to see them dead. No, that was not enough- he wanted to tear them apart himself.

There was that desire...

And then the simple, basest instinct to survive.

Step.

_It killed these people without mercy or reason... _

Step.

Ivan tried to stand strong. He tried so hard; he gave everything he had left (so precious little...) to stand and face the coming monster that had decimated these people and fight without fear in his heart; he fought to cement himself down and just _stop shaking _and to _fight._

And he could not do it.

Step.

_It... it ate these people alive..._

Step.

_It's going to kill me._

_It's going to eat me._

Step.

_It's going to eat me._

Step.

_...I CAN'T DO THIS!_

Psynergy vanished, staff clattered to the ground, and instinct overruled every sliver of rational thought left as Ivan whirled to run for his life.

"Meow."

He stopped.

"Meowww."

"Agh!"

Ivan fell back, slamming a hand over his face in amazement.

"Meowww."

It was a cat. Just a simple cat.

He laughed, short and high edging on broken hysteria. "It's j-just a cat," he gasped, and then, sure enough, the thing crept around the corner, creaking heavily on the floorboards, a white and spotted brown creature that looked up at him in disinterest, feline eyes darting about the home like he was no more than a piece of furniture.

"I'm losing my mind," he laughed. "By the Ancients, I'm losing my mind."

It meowed at him, high and uppity and smug, and he could almost hear the cat making fun of him in that one single purr. He laughed again, shaking, and when he blinked his eyes felt wet. Ivan let the nervous tears spill over; his hands were shaking too much to wipe them away.

"H-Hey, come here, kitty." He waved at the cat, gesturing for it to join him. "Come up here with me, yeah?"

The cat took one look at him, sniffed disdainfully, and turned its back.

"_AGH!" _

It turned its head around to hiss at him, clearly annoyed at him, then flicked away, slinking along the ground to find some other caretaker. And Ivan was left to sit frozen in sickened revulsion.

Its tail had been gnawed off.

The cat's tail was nothing but a red stump twitching back and forth carelessly in the cat's prowl of normalcy.

Ivan's smile twitched; then he twitched with it.

Then, it fell to shatter like glass, and the reality circling him like a vulture swooped in to claim him again.

Even the fucking cat.

Even. the. cat.

If Ivan's world hadn't chosen that moment to explode, the hopelessness sitting just at bay all night would have overtaken him entirely.

_Smash! _

Everything flipped upside down, and all turned haywire in the earsplitting crack of the wall behind him exploding- him thrown with it.

His mind- thrilled for the distraction- jumped straight along with it and yanked him out of tortured passivity.

Icy claws formed around his wrists to pin them to the wall, a rabid and guttural snarl torn through the air right in his face. He was sent tumbling to the floor so fast he could not even react, one second slumped against the wall and the next being thrown onto the floorboards so hard he felt them splinter and heard something in his back snap. The inhuman force was on him again, growling mouth and glinting teeth the only thing Ivan could see as the pointed mouth opened and went straight for his face.

The cat hit it before the wind could.

Ivan lay still in shock that eclipsed even agony, staring in disbelief as _that damn cat _hit the beast in midair with all the force of a tiny cannon and wrestled its straight to the ground, hissing all the way. A vicious howl of a catfight matched with the deepening snarls straight from hell, the indescribable mess somehow transforming into that damn cat flailing as the monster tried to throw it off- tiny feline teeth stuck determinedly and fiercely into its shoulder.

Ivan had no idea what to do.

The thing stood at half his height down on four bent legs, features and body undefined and existing only as a seamless black mass, the general shape of some kind of hulking animal embodied complete to claws digging into the floor and jaw snapping open and shut as it twisted on the floor, contorting in an utter mess to simply get to the cat. Teeth snapped perpetually, and its tongue continued to flick out with a sickening hungry hiss.

The cat crawled along its back to attack its neck, bowing its head in one vicious blow after another to rip at the creature where it was most delicate, chewing and tearing and clawing in such a frenzy Ivan could barely see.

With nothing more than one single, enraged howl, the monster turned its head completely backwards and snapped up the cat in one single gulp.

Still chewing, it then swiveled around to face him.

Jaws now gaping, Ivan was treated to an up close and personal view of the cat being rendered to nothing but strips of meat in mere seconds. It writhed on the black tongue, twitching for a mere instant but the mouth closed again, and the thing swallowed, empty red eyes glowing still in blank stretches that embodied nothing but instinct. Not pain, emotion- not even hunger. Simply pure animalistic instinct.

He caught a glimpse of smallest hint of blue silk stuck in one of its teeth.

There was no coherent thought. No sense, no strategy; not even a memory. One moment, Ivan was rooted to the spot without breath, heartbeat, or thought; his entire being eclipsed by fear, and the next, the monster had been torn to shreds by a maelstrom of wind so powerful it ripped the entire house apart.

And Ivan still couldn't breathe.

He stumbled back in horror, feet that he couldn't feel taking him back in numb footsteps until he hit the wall. The shadows disintegrated, splashing apart to form drops and pools but no solid form or body- just a beast slowly sloshing apart to become nothing more than black water.

The half eaten corpse of the cat floated in it.

_Even..._

_the fucking cat..._

_Even..._

_the fucking cat..._

_I can't- _

_I can't-_

_I can't-_

Ivan just started running.

He sprinted blindly, eyes shut and head down, mind frozen. He just ran without any half purpose or reason except to just _get away, away, AWAY, _and when he barreled through the doors of the next house, the tenuous string holding him together snapped entirely. He fell to his knees, gasping and trying not to vomit, but there were bones here, too, bones and the near rotted flesh of a foot this time, the ankle chewed into a disfigured mess just lying right in front of the door. He sank down until his head hit the floor, bile rising up and sliding out his mouth. It mixed with the hot tears coursing down his chin, and a strangled voice he did not even recognize moaned aloud; he sank even lower, burying his forehead to the floor and crying out in a wordless wail.

"Oh my god... oh my god... I can't... I can't, I can't, I can't..."

This time the PsPsyyenergy grew completely against anything he wanted or needed, swelling even as he screamed for it to stop. It felt like he was being forced against his will, like he was the last person left in the world and he _had _to bear witness to how these people had died. He _had _to- and he couldn't bear it. He panted and screamed and fought, pounding his head against the floor over and over again and yelling denial in time with it.

And still, he... he _had to..._

His powers activated his Mind Read even as he still got sick on the ground. It dragged him forward and slammed his hand down over the bones, shoving into his mind the last thoughts of those torn apart by the darkness even as he screamed for it not to.

_Please, please, please let the palace be safe. Please don't let this happen to my daughter. I will give anything. Please, to anybody who is listening... Please..._

Again.

_They said Kaocho was safe. They said it was the safest city in the world. They said I would be safe here._

And again.

_Please don't find us... please don't see us... please don't find us... please just keep moving... _

Over and over...

_Run away or hide, run away or hide- I don't know what to do- god I'm scared- I'm so scared-_

Everywhere he turned...

_I don't want to die! Please! I'll give anything, just- don't kill me! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!_

Over and again... some force he desperately wanted to simply stop driving him senselessly bear witness to the senseless slaughter...

_NO! Don't touch her! Do whatever you want to me but do not touch her! Don't hurt her! DON'T HURT HER!_

Jupiter's curse brought him to his knees again and again, filling his mind with the echoing remains of souls that had just wanted to escape and live, parents that only wished their children safety, elderly that only wished to die in their sleep, any way but this, soldiers that fought to the end even when their hands were chewed off and their feet were in the teeth of their enemy.

_I should've run with Sana! Why didn't I run?! Anything other than this... anything other than this... I can' t stand this waiting, I have to leave!_

_That's it, I'm going to the palace! They can't stop me! I am not staying here to die; I'm going for it!_

_COME ON, DAD! Please, you have to get up! We have to leave! Dad, come on! Dad?! Dad, why aren't you moving?! ...Dad?_

_I have to protect my son._

_Somebody help us! SOMEBODY, SAVE US!_

_She's my daughter, please, I beg you... let her go, she's only a child... please..._

_Mama, I don't like this story. Can you tell me another? I'm- I__'__m scared. Mama, please stop. I'm really scared. ...Mama?! MAMA?! _

_Help us- I can't- they're coming- run away- kill us- Daddy?- I'm scared Mom- please don't do this- help- save us- help us- don't- kill us- I don't want to die-_

Ivan sank to his knees, and sobbed.

* * *

When dawn came for the first time in weeks, the only emotion Isaac felt was fury.

What kind of fairness was this?!

They'd risked everything to get the Harapans out of their starving city and to Ayuthay. They'd risked everything just to buy them a little more time. And then, the sun at last climbed its way up the horizon simply to mock their efforts. To hang their and ask what the hell the point had even been.

It was one day too late.

He, Garet, and Mia set out at first light without waiting to speak with King Paithos, or any other Harapan or Ayuthian citizen. They had always been planning to set off the moment they had recovered enough Psynergy to make it, and when the sun banished the deadly creatures of the night back to the night itself, there was no longer a need for it. They left the underwater city so fast they were nothing but three triple blurs, sprinting into the dawn.

Ivan had fled toward the trees, he remembered that, but now, looking across the utterly empty plain of Ei-Jei, there were no trees. The cursed forest their Wind Adept had disappeared into was no more, and, still a stranger to the land created here in the Golden Sun, Isaac was left with no choice but to assume that they, too, had been made in the eclipse. Just like their shadow creature counterparts, birthed in the black curse of neverending night- and destroyed when morning finally came. Maybe some sort of trees that thrived in the cold or the darkness, or- he didn't give a damn, just that they weren't there now, and that meant Ivan wasn't, either.

This lessened the difficulty of their search significantly.

"Come on," he called, gesturing for Mia and Garet to follow him as he changed course for the mountainside city of Kaocho. It had been hidden by the forest before, and, given that it was either here or the abandoned Harapa, the military stronghold of Kaocho was the only logical choice. He smiled slightly, looking over the thick walls that ringed the city, the outline of stone gates and a high palace in the distance of the dawn. He could just see the lithe Wind Adept dancing over the rooftops on Jupiter's might, turning the city into his own forested stronghold. Wind Adepts were best at home in the trees, with the cover and the differing heights, but Ivan was very versatile. He could've very easily transformed Kaocho into his own forest, flying over the monsters on Jupiter's wings just as easily as he would have in the woods.

Isaac smiled grimly and ran even faster.

Their short marathon at last skidded past the front gates into a panting halt, Isaac breathing hard but not stopping even then. No; he ran straight ahead to check the first house for any signs there could be before he'd even come close to catching his breath and, by the sound of it, Garet and Mia followed right on his heel- just as desperate and hopeful as he was.

And the first home, thank the elements, yielded precious success.

"_He was here!_" Garet shouted, rushing to point to the windswept tumble that was the front room. "This was Ivan!"

Isaac grinned back, the chokehold that terror had grabbed on him ever since they'd left Ivan behind at last beginning to recede. "Come on, let's keep looking! He was here- we've just got to find where he went!"

Together, the three followed Ivan's trail from house to house, street to street; the earmarks of a Wind Adept were etched only too clearly everywhere they turned, from walls hewn to bits not by teeth but by a gale to one house that had been coated with black drops of monster's blood from floor to ceiling in such an erratic pattern it could have only been the wind. The farther they tracked the more violent the fights became, but every time, wind was the victor, and, at last, the hope Isaac had been trying to deny himself burst through and grabbed him with such a firm hold he didn't think he'd ever let it go.

"We're getting close!" Mia cried, her voice cracking over the same hope that had him strangled as they burst into another home broken by wind. They tore through it in a heartbeat, minds already on the move towards the next stop, the next sign, the next piece of the puzzle.

Then everything came to a screeching halt.

The destination, as it turned out, did not live up to the journey. Not even close.

Though, Isaac would've rather journeyed for a hundred more days than find himself standing before his best friend like this.

Ivan lay curled against the crumbling wall, partially submerged in a pool of dark liquid. He was so still that if it weren't for the slightest ripple in the bloodied water as he breathed, Isaac would've doubted that he still lived at all.

Ivan's staff was abandoned under limp fingers, the wood dyed red and black so deeply it looked as if it had never been brown. Ragged clumps of his hair floated in the pool of blood, the gold stained into a canvas of the dead and the dying, a shade of bloody decay and rotting flesh that made Isaac's stomach turn. They drifted in and out of his face, carried so gently in and out of the way to both reveal and hide his impossibly still face; skin, the same ashen color of the bones in the corner.

He looked dead already, and it had nothing to do with the blood.

"Dear god..."

His gut was one sticky, red mass of blood. Human blood.

"Oh, no... god, no..._Ivan!_" Mia's whisper broke through the air and the healer pushed past him and Garet to rush to the blond's side. She turned him over ever so carefully, smooth and skillful hands guiding him onto his back with the light of Mercury already beginning to glow- but that one motion revealed the last piece of the puzzle, and it left Isaac rooted to the spot in unholy shock.

Ivan's hair, blond and ugly brown both, spilled away from his face in knotted clumps made of dried blood. His eyes were closed. And from them, cleaning through dirt and blood both, were tear tracks.

Ivan had been crying.

_No... no, no, no..._

"...bleeding all night- Garet, I need help..."

"...hurry, Mia! You have to hurry!"

"...No, damn it, Ivan, you do _not _get to do this to us! You _wait for us; _don't you dare-!"

"_IVAN!" _

Isaac sank to his knees.

This was his fault. He had ordered they take the Harapans to Ayuthay on the very brink of dawn. He had ordered Ivan to drive the monsters off when they attacked instead of taking the responsibility himself. He had ordered Garet and Mia to stay in Ayuthay while their Psynergy and physical strength both recovered until first light, wasting an hour or more in senseless recovery while Ivan fought for his life.

This could not be happening.

He had been lying in bed in Ayuthay in the same moment as Ivan lay here, abandoned and lost in a blanket of blood.

This. Could. Not. Be. Happening.

"No... no... _no..." _

Even the sheer, crippling grief of striking his own father down, disgusting trick of the Wise One's or not, could not compare to how he felt right now.

Ivan could not die because of his decision. He could not die, period. None of them were _allowed _to die, not like this! _Not now!_

"God damn it, Ivan, you hold on! You don't dare let go, you, you- you _hold on!" _The words ripped from his mouth without any sort of conscious thought or decision, just a stream of desperation as he clutched a hand around Ivan's cold, clammy, and unspeakably wet one. He dropped to his knees and he begged. "You can't do this to us. That's an order, Ivan; you're not _allowed _to die until you're old and wrinkly and in some screwed up flying rocking chair waving your staff at the kids to get off your lawn. You _cannot die here, Ivan!"_

The ruined home echoed with despairing shout, and it and Mia's vibrating powers became the only noise left in what had so quickly become nothing but a continuation of hell.

The night had finally ended. Why hadn't the nightmare gone with it?

Isaac could only wait and hope.

Mia's hands shone brilliantly with effort, her oceanic eyes gleaming with a sheen of tears while her forehead was slick with sweat. Her Psynergetic light wavered and grew to envelop Ivan's abdomen in a glowing strand of white silk, fine as a hair and light as a feather. Isaac held his breath, unable to tear his eyes away as tiny strand after tiny strand began to weave into his wounded stomach like a needle and thread.

"Come on," Mia whispered, her voice shaking with the effort.

Then, slowly, so slowly Isaac ended it lightheaded with lack of air, the healer began to smile.

Trembling, he whirled to face her head on. He dared to hope again.

Mia hovered over Ivan for a second longer, the hopelessness and despair gone but the light of success not yet present. There was a breathless moment, a still second where no one moved or breathed, all eyes on Mia and her glowing hands.

Then, the light vanished, and Mia slumped in exhaustion. There was nothing but the sound of her panting for three long seconds, quite possibly the longest seconds of his entire life.

Then...

"He will be okay."

Garet slumped in relief. Isaac fell to his knees next to them both, sheer gratitude coursing through his entire being.

It took a long few minutes for their teammate to return from the brink of death, his physical strength and well-being something that no Psynergy, magical imbued water, or mystic draught could recover. Isaac waited patiently while his jerky, shallow breaths began to even out, and then for the bleached shade of his skin to slowly melt back into something that did not pierce him with fear. Mia kept up a steady low aura of healing as she moved all around their Wind Adept, searching and feeling for even the slightest of scratches, all while Garet did what he did best, boasted to high heaven about how nobody, not even Luna's foul beasts, could take out one of the Warriors of Vale.

And Isaac did what he did best: wait.

And finally, _finally, _when Ivan's eyes slid open in two impossibly dark half-crescents, he was watching. They were only half open, if that, two slivers of violet that held no sign that he could actually see them, but Isaac smiled through his heartbreak, the sight more heartwarming than anything he could've expected ever since they'd been forced to leave Ivan behind. "Hey, buddy," he whispered. That was all it took to cut off Garet mid-cheer and to pull both him and Mia back to his side again. "Surprised to see us?"

There was no reaction.

Not even the slightest twitch.

Isaac frowned. He reached down to touch his forehead, checking for fever, or any other sign that he might be not be entirely with them. "...Ivan?"

Still nothing. Not even a flicker of recognition in those still only half open eyes, eyes that remained empty and staring at nothing.

"Mia, what's wrong with him?"

"...He's probably still very tired, Garet," the healer said at last, but Isaac could hear the uncertainty in her voice even as she stood. "...We should probably try to get him back to Ayuthay. He needs to rest."

The Mars Adept nodded, seemingly oblivious to the air of uneasiness that weighed throughout the house. "Right. Hang in there for a sec, airhead." He moved forward, both swift and blunt in the way only Garet could be, and carefully slid an arm under Ivan's knees and the other behind his head.

The second he began to move, Ivan started screaming.

The bloodcurdling screech ripped through the at last peaceful silence with all the force of a bomb. Isaac jumped back, gasping, the noise setting his heart pounding so hard it nearly burst through his chest. Ivan bucked and yelled in Garet's grasp, eyes impossibly wide but utterly blind, his face carved in such a rictus of suffering Isaac was left stunned. His back arched, twisting off Garet's arms in a violent jerk that left him facedown in the sloshing pool of blood again and the Fire Adept splattered and frozen in shock.

The breakdown was so sudden and unexpected- from lethargic and half-conscious to very much aware, and _very _much in pain.

Mia moved forward, but Isaac was faster, driven only by some primal need deep within him to simply reach out, and stop his friend from descending even deeper into this well of suffering before he fell so deep, they couldn't pull him out again.

"Ivan!" he cried, darting forward to yank him over onto his back before the flailing limb caught him in the face. He threw himself back in without hesitation, reaching out to touch him before he jerked his hand back, the earsplitting wail that was Ivan's reaction to being touched still ringing in his ears and being torn from Ivan's throat. The Wind Adept's eyes were shut tight, and he just kept on _screaming, _rhyme and reason nonexistent in the tortured, piercing screech that echoed on the still air with all the force of a physical blow. And all Isaac could do was sit and wait it out.

At last, the scream began to dwindle, and with it, Ivan curled into himself.

He shrunk down into a tightly wrapped ball, blond and black head buried in his knees. The scream trailing off into a long and agonized whimper, muffled in his cocoon but no less a detailed path of suffering. Isaac sat limp and filled with dread, staring helplessly until at last the moan disintegrated into words.

"I don't want to die..."

The three exchanged horrified looks.

If there was anything Isaac could've chosen as Ivan's first coherent words, it was certainly not _that. _

It was Garet who spoke this time, reaching out as if to touch his shoulder. "Ivan, you're not-"

"Please keep my daughter safe..."

Garet stopped, motionless. A few moments later, he tried again, but his voice was dry and uncertain. "Karis isn't in danger-"

"Don't let my son come back."

Garet stopped short, and Isaac's stomach dropped.

"Mama, I'm scared. ...Mama... _Mama?!" _

They all stared in a complete lack of comprehension- and a very full set of horror.

Ivan sank even deeper into himself, trembling now, his voice and body shaking like a scared child's. He had always looked young, he had always been small, but now he looked smaller than even the boy he and Garet had met in Vault. Now he looked like just a small child, so terrified and scared that one touch would shatter him.

"Dear Ancients, don't let them reach the palace!"

"I can't die like this! Please, let me see the sun again!"

"I don't want to be here! I don't even live here! Just let me see my family again, just let me see them and then you can kill me, just let me see them!"

"Keep our children safe!"

"_I don't want to die!" _

Isaac stared, hopeless and so damn lost he could feel himself falling.

"Dear god," Mia whispered, "what did they _do _to him?"

Isaac's hand moved forward of its own accord, moving ever so carefully through the ocean of horror with only one finger extended to touch his shoulder.

"They broke the door, they're coming for me, th-"

Thank the Ancients, that one simple touch was enough.

"..."

Ivan sat completely frozen now. Even the trembling had stopped.

"I- Ivan?"

Slowly, his head rose just enough for Isaac to see the beginnings of his violet eyes. They peeked out over the tops of his arms, wide and frightened. They met his again with no recognition, and Isaac swallowed.

"Ivan... it's okay. It's us."

Ivan stared at him for one long heartbeat, unmoving and unblinking. Not even breathing; he felt no breath rise his shoulder or leave his chest. He just sat there, frozen on the floor and staring at Isaac with such young innocence and such a lack of awareness it physically hurt.

Then, he spoke.

"I- Isaac?"

Weak, tremulous, tiny, and quite possibly the most beautiful thing Isaac had ever heard. He nodded, gasping; the relief that flooded through him was so powerful he almost laughed. "Yes. Yes. It's us. You're okay, Ivan. You're going to make it. You're going to get out of here."

His words gave no sign of happiness or relief to the Wind Adept's face, but Ivan did not retreat this time. He raised his head even more, but now emotion was completely devoid from his face; neither the heartbroken sorrow of his earlier screams or the terrified innocence of his later rantings. Just- blank. He moved forward off the wall; Isaac rushed to support him, moving one arm around his back to steady him when he swayed.

Ivan crouched for a second, ankle deep in the bloody water, still dripping in the stuff. He looked down in the black mirror, unsteady and trembling still, but whether from physical weakness or mental anguish, Isaac couldn't tell. The blood provided no reflection or clarity, if that had been what he searched for- there was nothing in its depths at all. Just an endless abyss that Ivan stared into- as empty as his eyes.

Without warning, whatever strength Ivan had left gave out, and the Wind Adept slumped in his arms like a puppet with its strings cut. His head dropped into his shoulder.

"I- Ivan?"

He started sobbing.

"_Ivan?!" _

But there was nothing but short, gasped breaths. Desperate sobbing. Desperate, end of the world kind of sobbing. Gasped breaths escaped into his shoulder as the grown man cried his heart out in sheer, endless insanity and sorrow.

"Ivan..."


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you for reviewing! This is the sequel to Jupiter's Curse. Essentially, it's nine drabbles- moments in time, I suppose, that take place after the first chapter. By the way, my definition of drabble is pretty much just... not 5000 words or upwards... I think it's really impossible for me to write anything in under 1000 by this point :( Took me an extra bit of time because I found myself inspired by the anime Shiki, a horror/war anime on the nature of humanity (IMO). I had to work it in to the last drabble :)

Just checked the word count. 15000 WORDS FOR JUST THIS CHAPTER?! WHY?! I saw this entire fic maybe being that much or less... I'm really sorry, I know it's a lot to read in one sitting... this seriously happens every time by this point I have no idea what's wrong with me ugh :(

Well, regardless, I hope you enjoy!

**Mercury's Gift, 1 **

Ivan slept for days.

The lithe Wind Adept showed no signs of recovery, just as they got not even a glimpse of what he had been through. Whatever sleep claimed him, it was unbreakable, and unending. First hours that melded into a day, then two, then three, and very soon they lost count. Ivan slept on, and all Isaac had as reassurance was that he still breathed.

Mia did not understand it. She would sit by his side with Isaac many times, working her magic over him without pause or rest; once she poured her energy into him for an entire day. She might as well have not even tried, for all the difference she made.

"There is no poison, no curse," she said adamantly, time and time again. "His wound is near entirely healed. He should have woken by now!"

Of course there was no poison or curse, Isaac thought, but he did not have it in him to say it aloud and to rebuke her like that; cruelly. She was only trying to help. But, then, what curse could have torn Ivan apart into what they had found in Kaocho? There was no poison that could make a man scream.

There was no physical ailment that could reduce him to sobbing in another's arms as if the world had already ended.

No physical torture that could have broken Ivan so cleanly in two that he did not even recognize the sight of his own friends.

Once, her patience fraying on endurance's end, Mia had snapped, whirling around to point at Ivan, her eyes glinting in the slightest departure from calm reality. "For Mercury's sake! He healed faster on Jupiter Lighthouse, and this was _after _you two had gotten your butts burnt by Agatio and Karst! But _now, _you're- ugh! I can't do anything more for you, Ivan! _Wake up _already!"

Then, she realized what she had just actually done, and Mia clapped a hand over her mouth in dismay. Her fierce expression melted first into horror, and then, to despair. She bowed her head, shoulders shaking. "...I..."

Isaac winced in sympathy.

Mia was, first and foremost, a healer. If they had never come to her in Imil... if Alex had not gotten involved... he was willing to bet she would have been satisfied living her whole life there as a healer. She could fight, but her passion was in putting her hands to Ivan's wound and watching it gently blend into life again. It must disturb her- at last encountered with a disease she could not cure by Psynergy alone.

Whatever was wrong with Ivan was something that she could not fix, and that surely bothered her more than anything.

It had to hurt, that the only time it felt like her powers truly mattered- they did not work.

Isaac knew the feeling.

Leader, they called him, the one that tied four brands of unique together, the piece that connected four Adepts who had nothing in common except bonds of friendship. Near anyone from Vale could have fulfilled the requirement of Earth Adept- very few, Garet had once told him, could have gotten them all to Prox and won the day for them. But, if a leader was what he was in life, then why had he left one of their own behind to be slaughtered?

The one time it mattered...

"It's okay, Mia," he said, without any conviction. "Ivan will be okay."

False promises- was that something else a true leader did? Or merely the shell of one?

Isaac wasn't sure, but he had a sneaking suspicion it was the second one.

A true leader would not need to give false promises. A true leader would not see Ivan like this in the first place.

Mia left, her composure fast fleeing, and he let her seek her privacy while he sought his own. There was nothing he could do for her now, and nothing she could do for him.

Ivan slept on, oblivious to the breakdowns shattering the peace around him.

**Venus' Endurance, 1  
**

"Sometimes," Mia had said, her hands passing in a warm flurry over the vicious gash turned faded, white line, "people sleep because they don't want to wake up." She paused. Looked at him sadly. "They don't want to face reality."

Isaac didn't know what that meant, or at least how it could relate to Ivan. He had done nothing he should feel guilty about. He had not lost anything he should terribly miss. Reality was golden now, literally; the sun had risen once again and whatever that horrible eclipse had been, it was finished.

The screams still echoed in his ears sometimes, and the haunted whispers of a son Ivan didn't have and a mother who had died years ago would return to him at night, both from Ivan's own lips and his own tortured memory of that day.

He tried not to dwell on what could have caused them.

Even when Ivan would scream so loudly in his sleep he would wake half the town, and even when he would mumble of children he did not have and not wanting to die in the dark that no longer existed, Isaac tried very hard not to think of what Ivan could've gone through to cause them.

_They don't want to face reality. _

Reality, maybe.

In Ivan's case, Isaac was more inclined to think is that he did not want to face his own memories. He did not want to live with what he had seen.

Sometimes, in the rare unguarded moment when Ivan's nightmares pulled him from his own sleep, just moments after he had been yanked from a restless night, Isaac would wish that he could read minds. He would wish it was as simple as being able to peer into Ivan's head, because that way, he'd _know. _And if he knew, then everything would somehow simply be better.

Then his own reality caught up with him.

There was no magic fix to this. No Psynergy move that would revert everything to what could be accepted as normal now. There was only waiting for Ivan to recover himself, and all they could do for him was wait by his side.

No matter how tortuous it had become.

**Mars' Passion, 1  
**

Garet was not Mia; he was not good at fixing the broken. Garet was not Isaac; he was not good at waiting.

Garet was Garet. He was good at action.

The sun had only just risen on the fifth day, much of Ayuthay still slumbering and the entire city still, when the Fire Adept made his appearance. He stood next to Isaac, and said in no uncertain terms that he was going out to Kaocho.

"Something there is why he won't wake up, so I'm going there to find out what it is."

Isaac looked him over with a cursory glance, but said nothing to the effect of stopping him. He may have been the de facto leader, but when it came to actual orders or commands or any sort of hierarchy- their group did not have that. Garet was free to do as he pleased. "I don't think you'll find anything," he said still, and looked back at Ivan. "Whatever this is... I think it relates to the eclipse. Not necessarily Kaocho."

"Do you have a better theory? Because I am all ears."

Isaac smiled to himself, detaching himself enough to draw a sad kind of amusement from the situation rather than only defeat. His plan was simple: to wait.

Of course, to Garet, that was no plan at all. He was sure Garet had tired of it the moment they realized that Ivan simply was not waking up.

Instead, he said quietly, "King Paithos advised us that Kaocho had no defenses against the eclipse. The casualties were probably high. ...It won't be easy to see. Be careful."

"Against what? I'm sure Ivan saw worse from that stupid eclipse." Garet shifted his weight, expression holding steady and firm rather than descending into the calm resignation Isaac felt like had long since claimed him. "Look, whatever it was, it's over now. I'll be fine; back in a few days, yeah?"

When Isaac didn't say anything, the determination faded, and Garet looked to the floor, uneasy. The Fire Adept shifted, one hand resting on his massive sword's hilt, the other twitching anxiously by his side. "...I have to do something, Isaac. I'm going crazy, just sitting here and waiting for something to happen. There has to be a better way."

Isaac nodded silently. If there was a better way, then Garet would assuredly find it. But, somehow, he doubted Garet would find what he was looking for in Kaocho.

"All the same, be careful."

"Isaac, the eclipse is _done. _Whatever that godlike hunk of rock was up to, he moved on to something else. I'll be fine out there!"

Not that Isaac had been referring to the eclipse in the first place- but, in spite of himself, the Earth Adept smiled. "You think the Wise One was involved?"

Garet shrugged, as if it should be obvious. "Who else? It reeks of that asshole. Anyway, we're still kinda the strongest Adepts around- and _we _obviously didn't do it. Who else?"

Isaac kept his opinions to himself this time, merely turning back to Ivan with a mirthless chuckle. He didn't think Garet would be entirely pleased to know his own ideas of who was behind the disaster were less of a divine quality. Alex had been conspicuously absent these past thirty years, and while Garet was inclined to believe that was because he was dead and buried under Mt. Aleph... Isaac wasn't so sure.

And Alex was the strongest Adept alive- not the Warriors of Vale.

_And the Wise One's duty was always to Weyward. The eclipse destroyed it. _

Alex, however, danced to the beat of his own drum.

But voicing his thoughts would only rock Garet's boat, and he had no proof. It _did _reek of the Wise One, as Garet had said; blatant sadistic suffering of innocents was the Wise One's tune, not Alex's. And Garet would rather blame it than admit the possibility that Alex was back.

Isaac shook his head at himself. Who was behind the eclipse was neither here nor there, at this point. If the Warriors of Vale were really going to have to combat its mastermind, they would do it with Felix, Jenna, Sheba, and Piers too- and, when Ivan was of a less unconscious quality. For now, that last part was all that mattered- getting Ivan to wake up. He recentered his thoughts around that and that alone.

"Be careful all the same, Garet. If you're right, and whatever happened to Ivan is still there- well..."

No further words were needed.

"...I will. Thanks, Isaac."

And Garet slipped out of the room as swiftly as he had come.

**Venus' Endurance, 2  
**

Ivan would toss and turn for hours on end, lost in a fever without origin. Unintelligible nothings were muttered out as haunted whispers as he twisted back and forth, blanket tangling around his toes and short, sweat slicked hair dancing over his contorting face. Forever caught in the throes of a nightmare until at last, the exhaustion would do him in, and he would lie still as a rock for even longer, frozen as a statue that breathed.

The only constant was that he never once woke.

Isaac stayed with him through it all, tending to the fever when it appeared and simply sitting silently when Ivan did the same.

"...open doors... coming, they, they open doors..."

Isaac said nothing to answer Ivan's ramblings, senseless as they were; words gave nothing but meaningless sentiment and they only served to comfort those who were awake to hear them.

He had already tried them, anyway. Would try anything, at this point.

Ivan had not responded to anything he'd said anymore than he had responded to anything else. That was to say, not at all.

"...damn cat."

That quirked a tiny smile out of him, a tiny, mirthless smile. Ivan loved cats.

"They're so smug. Every single one of them- manipulates us into feeding them, sits there purring until we pet them like they want. They're the only people who aren't afraid of my Mind Read... I use it on them and they just look at me, like, what, do you want something, Ivan?"

Isaac could hear the blond laughing afterwards, shaking his head affectionately even as he stroked the cat padding around in his lap.

"...stupid... cat..."

Then the vision shattered, and he fell back to the present again.

Sighing, Isaac bowed his head in defeat and carefully touched Ivan's shoulder, holding his hand still when he flinched and waiting for Ivan to become accustomed to the existence of an outside world once again. He lay curled and struggling on his side, thin back to Isaac so all he could see was his slim form and mop of hair twitching in whatever worlds his fevered mind cared to show him. When he moved his hand and Ivan did not flinch, he carefully guided the adept onto his back again, slow and cautious as ever. Ivan did not resist so long as he was slow and did not force him.

Twisted blond hair remained dancing over his anguished and contorting face in a sweaty mop, revealing only furrowed brows and a twitching mouth that whispered constantly but rarely audibly. He trembled just as hard on his back as he did on his side, but Mia had told him to do it, said _if he's on his back it's less stress on the wound. _

Not that Ivan noticed any physical pain anymore. Or was even aware of the physical world.

"Hey, come up here, kitty..."

Isaac laughed miserably. What, would it take a cat to get Ivan to wake up? He'd find one if that was it, but, somehow, he doubted-

"_AGH!" _

With the shout, Ivan jerked straight and stiffened, breaths jolting to a short and panicked rhythm. His face twisted and Isaac stayed back, hand hovering over his shoulder in the moment that Ivan lay frozen but absolutely not out of the nightmare.

The seconds it took for him to descend back into his regular (and terrifying pattern) felt almost like hours, to Isaac.

He sighed.

Minutes of stressful mumbles and struggling passed, most things Ivan said too quiet for anyone to hear. Isaac cautiously laid a hand on the twitching arm, but they no longer took it as a good sign that he did not flinch anymore. To Isaac, it seemed only that he was so deeply entrenched in passing dreams that he did not even feel it.

"Why do you sleep still," he whispered, defeated. "What is it we can do for you, what is that you need? If you could just find a way to tell us, we'd get it for you."

Though they doubted what Ivan _needed _was anything concrete that they could go fetch. That would be too convenient, and far easier than the road he was sure lay before them all now.

"...daddy?" Ivan murmured, voice uplifting in a question. He held silent for the briefest of moments, almost as if waiting for an answer, before the twisted paths of his mind carried him away again.

Isaac looked away.

Ivan had never known his real father, and Hammet had been dead for a long time now. Now that Ivan had ever called his adoptive parents anything over than Lady Layana and Master Hammet... Isaac was reasonably sure that Ivan had never called anyone 'daddy' in his life.

Though, if that were the most troubling thing that Ivan had mumbled through his fevered ramblings, Isaac would've been thrilled. But reality was not so kind.

"Jupiter, be merciful..."

"If only it would," Isaac muttered back. If only indeed.

Ivan said nothing in response, and, downtrodden hopes falling just a bit lower, Isaac simply pulled the tossed blanket higher once again and shifted to sit silently through the ordeal.

When Ivan at last slept once again, Isaac did, too.

**Venus' Endurance, 3**

Karis nearly started to cry when she saw her father. When she was told how it happened, the girl stood there and trembled for barely a second before she burst into tears and dissolved into a sobbing heap.

When his son explained why, telling in halting tones their own intrinsic role in the death and eventual resurrection of the dawn, Isaac could hardly believe it.

Matthew fled soon after, saying he had business to take care of, but the guilt ridden look on his face said quite clearly that the only thing he was interested in was getting out of that room. Tyrell and Rief went with him for no doubt exactly the same reasons.

And Karis stayed behind, sobbing silently at her father's bedside and clutching his hand to her heart.

For the first time in a week, Isaac left Ivan's side.

(Daughters deserved their privacy far more than he needed to stay. And even that aside... he had no doubt Karis would lay down hell on earth if anything at all happened to risk her father's safety again.)

The day was passed with Kraden, the scholar quite unsurprisingly having played yet another important role in adventures to stop the apocalypse. The man was ancient by this point and had already saved the world twice- Isaac had to wonder if there was a limit on that sort of the thing or if the universe had just taken a fancy to Kraden.

Whatever the reason, it seemed the four lighthouses had not been just four, and the four elements were not, in fact, four. And Kraden positively delighted in it.

"Can you imagine, Isaac?" he gushed. "Two entirely new elements! Light and Dark Psynergy... Luna Tower, Apollo Sanctum- two new lighthouses, I think! Can you imagine the implications?!"

Well, Isaac had, firsthand, but he didn't want to put a damper on Kraden's spirits just yet. "Yes," he said dryly, unable to help an amused smile as the scholar went at it again without even looking at him.

"And there must be two entirely undiscovered cultures as well! The Taurapanga seem to be Luna Adepts, certainly, but I am convinced there are Sol Adepts out there as well!"

"If anyone can find them, you will," Isaac laughed. He believed it, too; no one had a talent for ferreting out secrets like Kraden.

"The existence of the Umbra Armor raises so many questions, and the fact that it was hidden around the world, too- it seems once there were non-Adepts involved in this battle between Luna and Sol; I can't imagine that Sol Adepts would have needed it, given especially that they were the ones who _built _it. But was this before the elements were sealed away? Ah, it must have been- the Taurapanga seem like Lemuria, one of the great civilizations of old, and they have remained invisible to our eyes, too, until now! Oh, what do you think Isaac? Silly me, dominating the discussion."

"Uh- huh?"

Kraden waved his hands excitedly. "Yes, what do you think about all of this?"

Isaac froze, having lost track of Kraden's rambling eagerness a long time ago. "I, uh... I think it's, uh... very interesting..."

"Interesting? It's positively thrilling!"

And he went off at it again.

When at last the discussion passed Isaac's ability to provide even satisfactory answers, Kraden mused to himself silently, continuing on their circuitous walk around the great Ayuthay.

It was on their third walk around when he at last spoke up again, considerably calmer than before. "So- a great coincidence it is, that we would run into you here. If it weren't for Amiti, we likely would not have stopped by here on our way back at all. Tell me, what brought you to Ayuthay?"

Isaac frowned. "...Ivan did," he said shortly, and lowered his eyes to the ground. It was the truth, more or less. If it wasn't for Ivan, they would have left this city long ago.

"Ivan?"

"Yes, Ivan," he snapped, annoyed. "You know, the Wind Adept we traveled with? Short, blond, still looks like a kid? Governor of Kalay? Anything ringing a bell here-"

"Yes, Isaac, I am quite aware of who Ivan _is_," Kraden said waspishly. "I was more referring to why he was your reason for coming to Ayuthay."

Isaac blinked, then groaned. He rubbed his forehead, trying to push away the headache he felt coming. "I... yes, I know... I'm sorry, Kraden. It has been a long- couple of weeks, actually. I feel as if I haven't slept since this whole thing started..."

"You are not alone in that, my friend."

He sighed miserably, coming to a halt aside the underground river that ran through everywhere in Ayuthay. He glanced down at his reflection and found himself too tired to even wince, but he was obviously a mess. An exhausted one, at that. Isaac dropped down to his knees, feeling the last of his strength leave him and render him all but a step away from passing out right then and there. "With the eclipse... then what happened to Ivan..." he muttered, rubbing his eyes, "we've all been going nonstop. As it turns out, not the best idea."

"Hardly," Kraden snorted. "Ivan- he was... poisoned, no? Or cursed?"

"For all we know. It's the only thing that I can believe, at this point."

"Wait." The scholar joined him by his side, far too agile for a man of over a hundred. "Does Mia not know?"

Isaac shrugged, irritated. "She says she can not find any evidence of such things. But why else would he sleep for a week?! I don't know, maybe it's what you said... Dark Psynergy and whatnot. Maybe there's something wrong with him that she just can't see; you know, the new Psynergy is masking it or something."

Kraden said nothing, simply looking at him while Isaac stared down his own reflection in the water. He knew he was making no sense at all; he didn't much care. Ivan wasn't making any sense either, these days, and he got a free pass. Seemed only fair he get the same.

"...Wait here, Isaac." Kraden stood and swiftly moved away behind him and out of sight. Isaac followed the order merely because he did not have the strength, or the willpower, to do otherwise.

When Ivan's scream rang in his ears again, he simply dropped his head into his hands and shut his eyes.

"_I can't die like this, please let me see the sun again!"_

"_Please keep our children safe!"_

"_I don't want to die!" _

_God, Ivan..._

"Eat."

Isaac groaned at the outside world. Any other response took more effort than he had.

"Isaac, here; eat something."

Kraden had to physically jolt him out of his miserable reverie for the past to stop echoing in his mind; even then, it still took a few moments for him to register what was going on. "I- oh." Without even looking, he took whatever it was Kraden was offering and jammed a bite in his mouth. It was dry and tasteless, but Isaac wasn't sure if that was Ayuthay's fault or his own; exhaustion had a way of draining one's senses into nothing.

The food did force him to perk up a little, and by the time he was finished, Isaac felt a just slightly less lost than before. He ran a hand through his hair, brushing over the mussed portions and ripping out a few tangles. Maybe Kraden and his unspoken judgement was right... he needed to sleep.

"Now," the scholar said at last. "What happened to Ivan? How was he injured?"

It not in him to resist any longer, Isaac at last gave forth the monotonous story.

"Harapa was starving. By the time we got here, they had almost run out of what supplies they had left. Ayuthay, in contrast, had stockpiled supplies for a while now to deal with Kaocho's seige. They were also fed by the ocean- fish came by often enough for them to make a living. They agreed to help."

"Admirable, how we all forget our differences in such dark times."

"Admirable, or human nature?"

Kraden smiled slightly. "Touché, Isaac."

Isaac did not smile himself, the mere memory of the story leaving him mired in guilt and recurring exhaustion once again. "We escorted the Harapans to Ayuthay. It was the only way," he continued, without attempt at transition or explanation. It had been a difficult decision to make; they had stressed over it enough at the time. The fact that he now wished with his whole heart they had opted to wait- just a few hours, even, just a few hours would be enough- no long had any play. "On the way, monsters attacked. Ivan said that he would draw them off, and he went to the forest. ...That night, the eclipse ended. We went looking for him as soon as we could; finally found him in Kaocho." He paused, trembling when he remembered in just what state they had found him in.

Screaming... sobbing...

"...Mia healed him as best she could, and he has not woken up since," he stated simply. He glossed over the details because he didn't think he could handle explaining them- or reliving them.

"This was a week ago?"

Isaac nodded mutely, idly rubbing at a smudge of dirt on his cheek.

"And... you found him in Kaocho, you said?"

He nodded again, now slightly irritated. "Yeah, Garet actually is there now trying to figure out what happened. So?"

Kraden paused, falling silent again. He let Isaac sit and stew in his own miserable guilt, the scholar now looking at the river himself in introspection.

At last, he spoke again.

"I do not think Ivan was cursed."

Isaac jerked.

"You- you what?!" he demanded. Suddenly the energy that had been lacking all day returned full force, Kraden's words enough to jolt him into thinking and working once again. "You know what's wrong with him?!"

"Possibly," Kraden said carefully, and there was a dark look in his eye, like he did not necessarily want to go on. Sure enough, he did not continue.

"Hey, out with it! What's wrong with Ivan?! What do we have to do to fix him?!"

"Isaac... you misunderstand. I am not a miracle worker- I do not know of anything to do that would, er, _fix _him."

His heart pounding, Isaac whirled to fully face the scholar and smacked his palm against the rough ground. Kraden was now pushing him from anxious, to frustrated, and, at last, to fearful. "Spit it out!"

"Isaac, you and your friends are not the only ones to go to Kaocho after the eclipse. We did, as well." Kraden paused, his face darkening with the memory. "Sveta, our mindreader, insisted we leave mere minutes after we arrived. She would not explain why. We had to take care of something and when she wouldn't say why, Matthew said she would have to wait until we were done. She became ill shortly after. It was not until after we had left the city, and she had slept, that she recovered- and she still refused to speak of what had happened. That this would happen to Ivan as well... they are very dissimilar, linked only in Psynergy. Mind Read, that is. Or Spirit Sense, in her case. The fact that Karis was just as confused as us only further cements this theory."

Isaac frowned, heart still hammering painfully hard in his chest. He looked back over his shoulder to the shadowed inn, feeling almost as if he could look through the wall and see Ivan and his daughter. "So, what are you saying?" he asked nervously, curling his fingers together in his lap. "There's something in eclipsed Kaocho that's- reacting badly with Mind Read, or something?"

"No, no." Kraden shook his head. "Not a physical reaction at all. I think there is- or was- something in Kaocho that Ivan must have tried to Mind Read. Sveta's Spirit Sense seems to differ in that it is less a conscious action on her part- she would say that unless she actively tried not to, she could hear people's thoughts whether she wanted to or not. I think there is something in that city that the rest of us could not hear that disturbed these two greatly."

Isaac sighed, turning away from Kraden to look back at the river again. He dropped his chin to rest in his hand, morose. "...Did this happen in any other cities to Sveta?"

"No. But, we were unable to enter any other fallen cities."

"And, let me guess- Sveta isn't here, is she?"

Kraden chuckled uncomfortably. "I daresay she found ruling Belinsk in her brother's stead slightly more important than escorting us home..."

Isaac groaned.

So, per Kraden, they had learned it involved Mind Read.

Fantastic. He'd just go find his non-unconscious Mind Read-yielding friends for some insight.

"Have hope, Isaac." Kraden stood and clapped a hand on his shoulder, strong and steady with a century's worth of experience. "You four are resilient- Ivan is no exception. Wind can never be eradicated. It may be forced to blow a different direction, or at times seem to be even nonexistent, but wherever there is a world there is a wind. Ivan will recover. And I have no doubt that you are patient enough to see it through."

"Yeah, because mountains are so patient, right?"

Kraden smiled. "Of course. Have you ever seen an Earth Adept tire of waiting?"

"Felix on Venus Lighthouse, Susa on Izumo, my son every morning to learn a new Psynergy move..."

The scholar groaned. "Oh, dear," he chided sardonically. "It seems that my reasoning is flawed. How troublesome."

Smiling, Isaac pushed himself to his feet and dusted himself off, feeling for the first time in this entire nightmarish week like the iron weight had at last been lifted off his chest. "Thank you, Kraden. ...Seriously."

Kraden winked back. "Anytime, my boy."

They parted ways once again, Isaac headed back to Ayuthay's inn with at last a new sense of purpose. Kraden _had _given him hope, roundabout way or no. If he had to pick a word to describe Ivan- no, all four of them, it would be resilient. They had weathered the four lighthouses and tread across all of Weyward... they would weather this, too.

When he slipped back into the inn, the steady beat of his heart jolted again, and he found himself rooted to the spot.

Ivan's eyes were open.

His small grin burst into a full blown smile.

Ivan was awake.

The Wind Adept sat upright, slim but fully conscious and finally _with them _once again- his daughter fit tightly into his arms. Her head buried against his shoulder and she trembled through sobs of sheer relief, hiccuping against his arm and shaking in his grip. One of Ivan's hands rested against the back of her head, fingers sliding comfortingly through the long strands of green, agile and quick fingers now slow and kind. Standing, Karis was at least equal to Ivan's height now, if not taller, but she folded into his lap like a heartbroken child, sobbing in unending thankfulness that her father had at last woken from what she had done.

And Ivan sat through it all, simply hugging his daughter.

Isaac could not help but beam.

Kraden had been right.

Ivan looked up, hair falling from his eyes to behind his ear. His flat gaze met Isaac's.

He stopped smiling.

Ivan showed absolutely no recognition. No- he showed absolutely no emotion at all, period. He just stared at Isaac with all the sentiment he would have towards a complete stranger, and his eyes remained as blank and empty as when they had first found him. His mouth moved, murmuring soothing platitudes to Karis, but nowhere on his face did Isaac see any attachment to her, or any kinship with himself.

Isaac's hopes crashed back down to earth and shattered.

Ivan may have woken up, but he was not okay. He was not okay at all.

**Mars' Passion, 2  
**

Garet returned late. In typical Garet fashion.

"_What?!_ He's already _awake?!_" he demanded, so earsplittingly loud Isaac didn't think he would have to go track down Ivan after all. "But- all this trouble-! Are you _kidding_ me?!"

Isaac laughed at that, shaking his head in amusement. "Sorry to break it to you, Garet."

The Fire Adept looked wholly put down, and Isaac snickered. It wasn't much, but any levity at all nowadays was worth something. And Garet was just a walking bag of levity waiting to happen. "Yeah, if I didn't know better, I'd say he was only staying asleep because of you."

"God, you're an asshole, Isaac."

He grinned. "I'm sorry, Garet, you make it too easy. Sorry your trip was a waste, though."

But at that, Garet brightened, and his eyes lit up in excitement. "Hey, who said it was wasted? Koichiyo! Hey- Koichiyo, come out of there!"

Isaac blinked, watching in confusion as his friend turned and headed to pull the darting away form of a young girl back from around the corner. She looked to be no older than seven or eight, and by the way she stayed back, hesitant and eyes on the floor, biting her lip, she looked even younger. Garet prodded her forward slightly. "Isaac, this is Koichiyo. I found her in Kaocho."

His eyes widened. "She- survived?!" he managed. But how had a child...?

Garet nodded somberly. "Yeah. She told me about half the children made it to the palace. Emperor Wo and his family holed up there and the monsters couldn't get in. ...It's only kids, though..."

Isaac swallowed and looked down at the girl. What Garet was saying was at once both wonderful and horrible. People had _survived_ in that desolate massacre; _children_ had survived- but, only children. Kaocho was now a city of a still corrupt and greedy emperor, and... kids. Kids whose families had been slaughtered without exception.

Garet had made the right decision, bringing Kochiyo here. Isaac felt that they'd be seeing many more like her, in future days.

"Hey," he said, directly to her, and moved forward to crouch in front of her. "Hi, Kochiyo. I'm Isaac." He smiled warmly.

Her large eyes darted from him to Garet, who nodded encouragingly. She managed a small smile at him, and he knew it was genuine; how children could only be. She still looked nervous though, and pale, and Isaac resisted the urge to nudge Garet in annoyance. "Why'd you come with Garet to Ayuthay, Kochiyo?"

Kochiyo blinked, then hurriedly looked down, digging around the small bag slung over her shoulder. "I found something in my house. Mr. Garet said it belonged so somebody here, and I... I wanted to ask him a question..." She turned away, her eyes going to the floor even as she thrust out her find to him.

Isaac stared in disbelief.

The thin blade held out over her open palms...

Impossibly light, the ancient characters etched over the silvery surface, the hilt wrought with a yellow metal that was otherwordly- there was no mistaking it. That was Ivan's Kikuichimonji.

This explained why the ancient blade had been missing.

"Thank you," he said, taking the weapon from her gently and bringing it down to his side. "Ivan will be very glad to have this back."

Not that it explained why Garet had actually _brought_ Kochiyo back with him, and not just the sword.

"Garet, can I talk with-"

"_Hey!_ Airhead!"

Isaac jumped, turning just in time to see Ivan look in surprise too, the Wind Adept entering innocently from stage left. Ivan didn't even have time to dodge before Garet barreled in, snagging the unfortunate man in one of his headlock-turned-hugs, bringing a hand up to ruffle his hair. "Ivan!"

"Ack- Garet! Hey!"

Isaac smirked, rising to watch as Ivan tried to escape from the thrilled Fire Adept and failed miserably. He squirmed and twisted, and Garet just beamed. "I knew you'd be fine! Isaac was all pessimistic about it, you know him, but I was sure of it!"

"Hey, what now?"

"Ack- Garet- can't breathe- _hah!" _

Garet stumbled back and the spinning film of wind around Ivan receded, lowering the Adept gently to the ground and allowing him to dust himself off. Ivan sent a mild glare at the other as he did so. "You are aware that I'm _forty-five, _right?"

"Yep. You are aware that I'm still two years older, right?"

Ivan groaned.

At Ivan's apparent defeat, Garet sobered again, moving away to again stand next to Kochiyo. He took the sword from Isaac and held it out, and Ivan's eyes widened. "My Kikuichimonji!" He reached for it in surprise. "How... Garet, did you-?"

"Nope. She did." Garet moved aside, gesturing to Kochiyo.

She nodded. It was impossible miss that she was as close to clinging to Garet's side as she could get without actually touching him. "Yeah... it was in my house, mister."

Just like that- all hint of happiness on Ivan's face, gone.

His smile drained away in an instant, and the warm light in his eyes shut off with a mechanical force. He went from Ivan to bland robot in the space of a second.

"...Oh," he said simply. The previously relieved grip on his precious sword relaxed into a loose and nonchalant grip, and he smoothly lowered the weapon against his side. "Thank you for returning it to me, then."

Isaac looked down, crestfallen.

Ivan was no better at all. The mere mention of Kaocho had raised his defenses, and now he lay sheltered behind them and utterly unreachable. Stiff and formal, distant and removed... this Ivan had a stake in nothing; cared for nothing. This Ivan was nothing but a lie and a mask.

Garet looked only confused, not privy to Ivan's reclusion as Isaac and Mia were. He looked on with a frown, then merely shook his head and prodded the girl forward, when she did not continue. "She has a question for you. I was hoping that she could talk to Mia, since we know he was in her house, maybe something there was the problem- but, well, you're awake now! So it's fine. Kochiyo, go on; ask him."

She looked down, fiddling anxiously with a braid while her voice dwindled smaller and smaller. "It's okay if you don't know anything," she said, and shifted from one foot to the other. "Mr. Garet said you probably wouldn't. ...But my cat wasn't home. And I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find him! He really needs me to feed him, he doesn't like going outside, but I... I can't find him. I couldn't get him in time to get to the palace, and well, you were in my house... I was really hoping you'd seen him?"

The flicker of emotion at the word 'cat' was impossible to miss. The contort from uncaring to caring too much, a twist of emotion pulling apart the empty mask to shreds and permanently poisoning the blank facade he clung to so dearly. Ivan's mouth dropped open and his eyes went wide in a shocked display of... _is that... fear?_

And then it was gone.

Ivan stood stock still for a good five seconds, expression frozen in an empty canvas, body unnaturally still. He stared blankly at the hopeful Kochiyo, face devoid of any emotion at all, but Isaac knew, somehow, that Ivan was fighting for control.

The question had, for whatever reason, thrown him.

And now he was fighting to get his empty facade back, because whatever alternative was something he did not want to face.

At last, Ivan shook his head.

"No. I'm sorry. I never saw your... _cat."_

And then he whisked away so fast it left Garet staring, Kochiyo nearly crying, and Isaac- simply disappointed.

"_Hey! _Ivan, what's your problem?! It was just a simple question!"

It took more effort than Isaac wanted to admit to reach out and stop him. And when the Fire Adept twisted back to face him angrily, he did not have the will to explain what he did not fully understand himself. He just shook his head, meeting Garet's eye and praying he would understand.

He didn't, evidently, by the way he kept on staring blankly.

The tiny sniff at their feet caught his attention, and, shaking himself, Isaac let go of Garet and dropped to his knees again. "Hey, I'm sorry about that," he told her, and forced out a weak grin. Her wet eyes meeting his ruined any chance he had at even faking a smile and he flinched, hands curling anxiously. "Ivan hasn't been feeling very well lately, but he is grateful you found his sword. Thank you very much for returning it. Would it be okay if Garet and I took you see a friend of ours now? Amiti's prince of Ayuthay. I think he would like very much to meet you."

It took Kochiyo a couple of seconds to nod, and when did it was weak and her eyes stayed down miserably. Isaac felt even worse about what was essentially brushing her off, but he needed to talk to Garet alone. Isaac took her by the hand and stood, then shot a glare in Garet's direction. _I'll explain later, _he mouthed, and the Fire Adept only huffed before reluctantly moving to follow after him.

Somehow, Garet and Kochiyo had only made things worse.

* * *

It was well into the misery cloaked night when Garet finally relented, opting to not go beat some sense into Ivan after only much insistence. Isaac was convinced yelling would not help; given the way Ivan was responding thus far, he would only shut down even more.

But Garet had trouble processing that. Garet, who hadn't seen him standing in the heart of celebration without even possessing a single glimmer of happiness. Who hadn't seen Ivan move around these past two days like someone had sucked the soul out of him.

Who hadn't seen Karis sobbing her heart out in her utterly emotionless father's arms.

It was late that very same night, Isaac and Garet sharing mutual unhappiness over a stack of cards, seeking distraction until exhaustion was strong enough to prevail, that Kochiyo returned.

She looked much better, clean now and dressed as an Ayuthian, but the sadness had not gone, nor had Isaac expected it to. He looked at the timid girl and smiled again, setting down his hand. "Hi, Kochiyo. How are you liking Ayuthay?"

She smiled back timidly and stopped peeking around the edge of the door, moving further into the room. "...Very much. The people are nice here. It's not like what they taught us in school at all."

"I'm glad."

She hesitated again, fiddling with the crinkled piece of paper in her hand, then approached closer and looked at Garet. "Here."

Garet raised an eyebrow. "What's this?"

Kichiyo shrugged slightly. "I found it in my room here. Mr. Ivan's your friend, right? I thought you'd want to know..."

Isaac blinked. He looked from her to Garet, who looked just as surprised as he did. The Fire Adept sat still for a moment, then held out the paper so they could both see it and unraveled it.

_Kochiyo-_

_I apologize for earlier. I didn't feel as if I could say this in front of my friends. _

_I did see your cat. He died in the eclipse. I'm sorry. _

_-Ivan_

Garet just stared at the letter for a good ten seconds.

Then it was discarded like trash, and he was on his feet headed to the door.

"Hey! Hey, Garet, stop!"

"He could at least have the decency to say it to her face! What's that supposed to mean, 'couldn't say this in front of my friends', what bullshit is this." He stormed out of the room, Isaac hot on his heels, one hand tightly around Kochiyo's to not let her be left behind.

"_Garet!_ Ugh!"

The Fire Adept moved on his determined and angry march with no hesitation, hunting down Ivan with a ferocity that left Isaac feeling like his entire conversation earlier had been utterly worthless. He had to hurry just to catch up with him, and by the way Garet was rushing, he wouldn't be able to stop him before he launched into a tirade at Ivan that only made things worse.

Isaac was so focused on stopping Garet that he almost didn't slow down in time, nearly ramming into him and bringing their whole group to the ground when the Fire Adept stopped.

Garet had found Ivan.

And he was crying.

The Wind Adept sat alone in one of the many oft forgotten rooms in Ayuthay, leaning against the wall with his feet dangling in the water and his eyes closed. But the emptiness that had so disturbed Isaac was gone. And now he wanted it back.

The anguish and tears were far worse than anything he had seen before.

Isaac stared, stunned.

He'd been so concerned with getting Ivan to stop faking recovery, that he hadn't stopped to consider what was underneath the mask.

When Isaac and Garet didn't move, Kochiyo did.

The girl slipped in between them from behind and moved hesitantly towards Ivan, hands clasped in front of her and steps tiny. The second Ivan heard her, he froze, then twisted, rubbing furiously at his cheeks with the back of his hand. His efforts did nothing to wipe away the sorrow and the slow, steady stream of tears. His frantic gaze found Isaac's for just a fraction of a second before he looked away, rubbing his cheeks even harder.

"...Thanks for telling me about my cat."

Ivan blinked, his hand coming to a shaking halt. He just looked at her, sitting anguished but frozen, hand still sitting in mid air against his cheek.

"...You're welcome."

Neither Ivan nor Kochiyo moved.

Then, silently, Kochiyo crawled down to his level and wrapped her arms around his stomach.

When Ivan recovered from the shock, he lowered the hand from his cheek to instead hug her back. He was still crying, but now, he was smiling too.

And Isaac would take a real, brokenhearted smile over any of the fake ones he had seen these past few days.

He and Garet left together, leaving Ivan and Kochiyo behind.

**Venus' Endurance, 4  
**

Matthew, Tyrell, and Karis all left together shortly after Ivan had at last woken up. It had only been a day when Ivan started gently nudging them in that direction, and only one more after that for him to convince them it was for the best. "The eclipse ravaged many places in the north, too," he had said wisely, looking for all the world like the Ivan they all desperately wanted to return. "You three should go and assist them. We will stay here and help the people here. Do not worry. I am fine now."

Very stilted and formal; very forced indeed. Ivan's facade was slipping the longer that Isaac watched, moments when his smile faltered, or the dank nothingness in his eyes spread to encompass his entire face. He still didn't know whether it was for Karis that he was trying to smile again, no matter how fake, or whether it was everyone, not simply his daughter. He remembered Mia's words, before Ivan had woken; _Sometimes, there are things they do not want to face. _Perhaps the facade was for Ivan himself.

Whatever the reason, Isaac found himself hesitant to accept change. Whatever variable they removed, it could prompt a change backwards, something inbetween endless sleep and utterly fake recovery. Isaac saw hints of it in his eyes now, and it took a pronounced effort to stop himself from speaking up when Ivan convinced their children to go.

But he only sat silently by and watched.

He knew it would accomplish nothing to forestall the inevitable. Why manipulate the situation to his pleasing when it would only be just as fake as Ivan's smile?

So he simply sat by and let it happen.

It was the night before they were set to leave that Karis found him.

She stood in the doorway to his room, just looking at him sadly. She had been all smiles too, lately, but when he saw her like that, he had to wonder if she was faking it, too. Like father, like daughter.

"My dad's... not really okay, is he?" she asked quietly.

Isaac looked away. So, like Garet and Mia, she had noticed. Unsurprising. He doubted Matthew and Tyrell had- they barely knew Ivan. That had left just Karis, to notice that her father may have been conscious, but for all the real recovery he showed, he might as well have been still asleep. "No, he's not," he answered, unable to meet her eye. "...I was going to talk to him after you'd left."

Karis looked to the ground, shifting uncertainly. She fingered the small bag in her hands anxiously, features that he was so used to seeing fired up now sad and hesitant. "I know he wants us to leave. So I'm not going to stay. I'll leave, and- I don't know, I guess I'll help out in Kalay, until he's ready to come back. But, uh... can you give him this for me?" She held out the bag.

Isaac took it. "Yes. What is it?"

"It's this dream leaf that we got in Kolima. We never found a reason to use it, and, well- I doubt we ever would. ...I want him to have it."

"A... dream leaf?" he questioned unsurely, and opened the bag. Inside was a multicolored leaf, silver and streaked red, unnaturally still and when he touched it, unnaturally cold. "What does it do?"

"If he eats it before bed, he'll have good dreams for the night. He has to eat the whole thing, and we only had one, but- it's something, at least. And, uh- can you tell him that Matthew gave it to you? I don't know if Dad's faking this for me or not, but I don't want him to think he worried me. Please?"

Isaac softened. Once upon a time, Karis would have marched straight to Ivan and demanded to know what was going on, and not left until she got an answer. This roundabout method- the dream leaf, the ensuring Ivan didn't know she was involved... they were all signs that Karis had come back an entirely new woman. He thought Ivan would be proud.

"Yeah, Karis. I can do that."

The girl smiled. "Thanks. ...And you make sure that he comes home when he was ready, okay?! I get that he needs to stay here for now, but- not for too long! Please?"

Isaac relaxed, and grinned. Karis had grown, maybe, but inside, she was still the same girl who had nearly beaten Tyrell silly for stealing the soarwing. And he had no doubt that she would give Ivan the time he needed, but if he took too long, she could come to drag him back home.

"Yeah. Yeah, I can do that, Karis."

They both smiled.

**Mercury's Gift, 2**

"Hey, Isaac."

The Venus Adept sighed to himself, watching through the water's reflection as Mia drifted to stand behind him. She looked tired- though, admittedly, not as tired as he felt- and he managed a grim smile at her in the river. "Hey, Mia."

"Mind if I join you?"

He shrugged and gestured for her to sit.

The Water Adept dropped smoothly down to his side, rolling up her long pants so she could slide her legs into the cool water. "Let me guess... no progress with Ivan?"

"How could you tell?" he deadpanned. "What about you?"

Mia shook her head sadly. "He stopped coming for me to check on his wound. Left a note, saying he was going to see the an Ayuthian healer; not to worry."

Isaac sighed. There went another link they had with Ivan, another way to keep tabs on him and make sure he at least did not get any worse. The only constant anymore was that, with every day, he seemed to withdraw just a little bit more. "You know he's not really going to see one."

"I do. We both also know his wound was fine, and I only asked him to see me because I was worried about him. I shouldn't have used deceit anyway... Ivan was polite enough to not point that out."

Isaac grimaced and opted not to respond. In his opinion, Mia was the one being too polite to insist on seeing Ivan, not as a patient, but not as a friend.

The healer paused and looked at him in the water, her eyes rippling in the waves. "Isaac, don't be so worried. You know Ivan! He's not the little kid you and Garet found thirty years ago. If he needs help, he'll ask for it. He knows there's no shame in that."

Isaac winced. He wished he could believe Mia, he really did... but how was he supposed to simply _not_ worry? This was serious, and with every turn Ivan only left him more and more fearful that it was something they couldn't fix. Whatever he had seen in Kaocho... whatever he had done...

Whatever was slowly driving Ivan insane was doing the same to him, now, too.

He opened his mouth to ask Mia how it was even possible for her to sit here with him, _unconcerned- _then caught sight of her reflection again.

The wavering smile... her eyes, rendered colorless in the blue of the water, hollow...

Isaac sent one of his own wavering smiles her way. "I'll take your advice when you've taken it yourself, Mia."

The cracking mask vanished, and in its place Mia was just as distraught as he was.

"How'd you know," she muttered, reverting her gaze back to the water.

"You're worse at faking things than Ivan. Really, Mia... it's okay to be worried about him. God knows I am."

"I know that. I was only trying to make you feel better. Guess only Kraden's good for dispensing the sagely advice..." She blushed and looked away, embarrassed. "Looks like I'm not going to be making anyone feel better, these days."

Isaac softened. He remembered how greatly her inability to help had affected her, when Ivan slept still. He remembered how hard she had worked even when it was futile, exercising her healing arts into fatigue even when the chances had been slim to none that Ivan would respond. He was sure it was even worse now, when his suffering was clear and anguished indeed- and Mia was only able to stand helplessly by.

"You helped him get this far, Mia," he tried, looking at her directly this time. "Even if you can't heal him now, you still saved his life in Kaocho. That counts for something."

"Not enough," she said quietly. Stubbornly.

Her hand tapped restlessly against the ground.

"...I don't know why I'm like this," she said abruptly, her gaze doing down to the water. "Healer or nothing. I used to think it was because of my clan- how we are only renowned for healing. But then, I met Piers- and there was still Alex..."

At Isaac's look, Mia frowned and shook her head at him. "I know how you feel about Alex. And you and the others have good reason. But I promise, there's more to him than what you saw. But, Alex never shared my passion for this. The only reason I knew any attack Psynergy at all, when you met me, was because of him. He was interested in it." She shrugged. "And Piers- well, he's a much better fighter than I'll ever be." It was said simply, with no hint of apology or regret, but Isaac frowned, trying to explain it anyway.

"Piers is from Lemuria, you know; he's never seen what sickness or injury can do to people. He had no reason to want to be a healer. It's not surprising he would be a strong fighter, either, Mia."

"Yes, but it doesn't give me an answer for why I'm like this." She splayed her fingers over the water, watching as thin streams ran over her fingers and the back of her hand, pooling when she created a small circle with her thumb and forefinger. "I suppose my clan was a convenient target to begin with..."

"It's not a bad thing. Sometimes, we get too obsessed with trying to fight our way through things. The world needs healers, too, Mia."

"I'd be okay with that, Isaac- honestly, I would. But... it's not enough for Ivan."

The water continued to splash through and over her palms, cool and rapid. Her hands disrupted the current enough that her reflection had turned shimmery and uneven, disguising a torn face wearing a sad stare that met the water in what was near hopelessness. "You're not having any progress... Garet's not... and this is what I'm good at it. Helping people. But nothing I try is working."

"Hey- nothing I try is working, either. But you've got to stop thinking like an Adept." He tapped her head fondly. "Not everything can be fixed with Psynergy... nor should it be. We can help Ivan by being his friend through this- there's no Psynergy move called 'Go Back In Time', or, I don't know- 'Remove Memory' or something."

Mia nearly choked on a giggle, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. "'Remove Memory'? That's the best you can come up with?"

He flushed. "Hey, it's accurate!"

She grinned. "Right. You're awful, Isaac."

"Awful and accurate."

Shaking her head in amusement, Mia turned back to the river. Now, the reflection smiled.

"So... as Ivan's friends, then. How can we help him?"

At that, Mia had him stuck again, and he looked to the river himself, trying not to let his despair show. "...He won't talk to any of us. The only time I thought we were getting through to him was with Kochiyo, but the next day he was back to this- this pretending to be fine bullshit. I thought staying here would help after Karis left- you know how he feels about her; he would never want her to see him like this- but it didn't help at all. I try to be consistent, I try to just- be there, in case he needs anything. But he just keeps on hiding and saying he's fine." He shook his head in frustration. "I don't get why he's acting like this. Just what the hell _happened_ there, Mia?!" He hit the pavement now, frayed emotions built up and contained over this past week now fighting to burst out. "Kraden says Mind Read is involved. Okay, great. That clarified this by 0%, and Ivan's not helping! I just- what am I supposed to do?"

Mia's hand climbed over his own and rested there, soft and still wet from the river. She held still, and Isaac closed his eyes, focusing on the feel of her hand over his and the sound of her steady, even breaths. He let his own fall from their angered pace to match hers, trying to keep a handle on his emotions.

_Come on, Isaac, losing control isn't helping anybody, least of all Ivan. Come on... just calm down, now..._

When he breathed in time with Mia fully, each inhale calm and each exhale slow, the healer spoke up again.

"Kraden said Mind Read was involved?" she asked, calmly.

Isaac opened his eyes. "Yeah. He thinks so."

Mia nodded carefully but did not speak, her eyes distant. She sat for several long moments, clearly deep in thought, but her hand held still over his, fingers near absentmindedly tracing a light pattern over the back of his hand.

At last, she went on. "Ivan's Mind Read- does it work on dead people?"

Isaac paused. "...I don't know. What are you getting at?"

She looked at him, her eyes wide and empathetic. "You know he doesn't like being able to Mind Read people in the first place. And, in Kaocho- what if something happened, and he accidentally or, somehow had to read a dead person's mind? Nearly the whole city was killed... I imagine there were bodies everywhere." She trailed off with a shudder. "Maybe- something just got out of hand. Maybe he Mind Read... a whole bunch of people. He doesn't just hear thoughts, either, does he- he can see things, sometimes, and feel the same things they did... and everybody he would've found was killed by the monsters..."

Isaac's eyes widened.

Mia's calm but rising voice painted a vivid picture indeed. He could see it so clearly it was nearly a memory- Ivan, alone and injured in destroyed Kaocho, surrounded only be monsters and the dead. Ivan, in desperate need of help that was not coming- Ivan, who _knew _no help was on its way.

Who might've just been desperate enough to turn to the dead for aid, even if they only could give knowledge.

But what he had borne witness to was not mere thoughts; he had taken on as the sole survivor of that massacre and the lives and dying words of ten, twenty, a hundred people. Innocent civilians... those who watched their loved ones get torn apart, those who shielded their children, those who tried to run and those who tried to hide...

That was a momentous responsibility to bear.

"Mia..." he murmured, dismayed.

This was far worse than he had imagined.

"Hey- it's only a theory," she said quickly, laying a hand on his arm. She shook her head earnestly. "Don't look like that, please? We don't know anything for sure... and even if this is true, Ivan's still alive, like you said. We can work with that, if nothing else. If this really is what happened to him... it doesn't matter. No, it doesn't matter. We can still help him. We're still his friends, yes? We'll always be able to help each other."

"We haven't helped him thus far! We've tried everything and he just- won't respond!"

Mia shook her head again, stronger this time. "No. No, we absolutely have not tried everything. Ivan is..." She frowned and looked away, starting to bite on her lower lip. "Ivan... can be difficult. He's not like you or me... he's not so consistent in what he needs or wants. He's- like the wind itself. He changes. We need to change with him if we want to help him at all. He doesn't need us to be consistent anchors or we'll only leave him behind... we can't figure out a surefire way of getting through to him and helping him because there is no one single way. We need to understand what he responds to, and we need to understand how he changes! Kochiyo only helped him _right then_\- that's why she's not not still helping him now. He's not like us, Isaac- we can't use the same methods every time and hope to get through to him!"

She turned to him, beaming with excitement, her face bright with hope. She looked truly_ alive _again for the first time in a week, finally back in her true element of helping people and easing suffering; this was what she was good at and what she loved, and it looked as if whatever mental block that had been in her way had finally dissolved. He rarely saw her more true to herself or more glad.

The bright energy faded when she realized Isaac was simply staring at her, his mouth hanging open- entirely nonplussed. Her cheeks colored, and she looked away, suddenly self conscious. "I- do you not agree?"

"...Wow."

"Wha-"

"Uh, seriously, _wow_. That was amazing, Mia. You just figured out was wrong... _and_ how to help him. In like, a minute."

She reddened further, reaching up to awkwardly rub the back of her neck and hide her face. The overreaching relief took a backseat to her shyness now, and she shrugged, her eyes down. "It's nothing."

"It's not nothing," he corrected her. "It's a gift. ...And you just helped Ivan with it."

**Jupiter's Curse, 2**

"Going somewhere?"

Ivan jumped.

Isaac stayed still from his spot beside the gate leading out from underground, leaning back against the wall and looking down at the figure of the Wind Adept standing frozen and unsure of himself, still half in Ayuthay. Ivan's cheeks flushed, and he looked down, as if he just slipped back inside he could pretend this had never happened.

Frowning, Isaac unfolded the note from his fist and read aloud. "Have business to attend to in Morgal. Go home without me; will catch up- Ivan.' Huh. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but a verbal goodbye is, generally, custom? Or is the new tradition to slip away in the middle of the night?"

Ivan frowned himself, and the vestiges of nervousness faded away as quickly as they had come. "I needed to hurry," he said flatly, and pulled himself up the ladder. "Still do, actually."

"Hurry to Morgal. And see who?"

Ivan merely dusted himself off, seeming distinctly uninterested and detached. "Some old friends. I wish to check on them, after the eclipse- they are saying it was worst in Morgal."

For the first time since this had all began, Isaac found himself getting angry.

Yeah, because that was perfectly believable. Oh yeah, because he couldn't find _any _problem with Ivan just marching off without warning to parts unknown; oh, excuse him, parts unknown in Morgal.

"Hey, if you could pick a more believable excuse, that'd be great; give me something to tell Karis when we head back without you."

Ivan's eyes narrowed in a glare. "...It's the truth, Isaac."

"Don't kid yourself. You're not a good liar."

Ivan shrugged easily, appearing again extraordinarily disinterested. "You can believe what you like, Isaac, but I really am headed to Morgal. If you want to follow me, and prove it, then fine, but I'm leaving now. I'll head back to Angara in about a week- shouldn't take me that long to track down the people I'm looking for."

Isaac hesitated. Ivan was being senselessly difficult, yes- but maybe he should just _let _him be difficult. If he wasn't willing to explain what was going on, that was his choice. And, what was the worst that could happen? Post eclipse, Morgal should be safe. Ivan would (hopefully) find what he was looking for, then head back to Kalay- that was within a mile of the Lookout Cabin. He could check up on him when he came back.

Then, the note crinkled in his fist, and Isaac scowled.

No- that wasn't what would happen.

What Ivan _actually _would do is leave for Morgal, or who really knew, and then a few days later, they'd get another note. _Sorry guys, change of plans, will be gone indefinitely and I'm not sure where. See you later._

And Ivan had a talent for hiding. If he wanted to disappear then- then he would.

"Yeah, you're not going to Morgal, Ivan."

The Wind Adept paused, his back to him. Ivan stood still for a moment, staff grounding into the floor in irritation, and Isaac could just feel he was fighting to get himself under control. Then, stiffly, Ivan looked back over his shoulder at him, one eye shadowed by the fringe of his hair. "Excuse me, _Dad?" _

Isaac winced. So, maybe he could have phrased that better.

"Look," he said, spreading his hands placatingly. "At least let us come with you. It's been a rough week for us all- I think the others would feel more comfortable if we just stuck together for now. We'd worry, otherwise."

Ivan laughed with a false brightness that hurt. "Why? The eclipse is over. I'll be fine. It wasn't that long ago I went to Morgal by myself. What are you afraid of?"

"You not coming back," he said honestly.

Ivan's frown deepened. "Seriously, are you worried I'm going to run into superpowered beasts that hid out during the eclipse? Isaac, there's nothing up there that'll be a threat to me."

"That isn't what I meant at all." Isaac sighed, frustrated, and rubbed a hand over his face. "...I'm worried you wouldn't come back of your own volition."

Ivan's eyes widened.

When the Wind Adept did not answer, and just stared at him, the only way Isaac had to describe him being takenaback, he sighed. It seems that confirmed it, then. Ivan had been planning on heading to Morgal- and staying there.

Isaac slumped back against the wall, rubbing his eyes again as he felt the fight go out of him. How had they gotten to this point? How had they progressed in a downwards spiral so drastically in the space of a week? Before the eclipse had hit, Isaac never could've guessed this could even happen- but now, here they were, Ivan practically lying and definitely scheming just to get away from them.

"Come on, Ivan. What's the point. ...Why can't you just _talk _to us?"

The Wind Adept said nothing, his eyes only for the ground.

Isaac watched on, close to giving up entirely, and Ivan eventually turned away, hands planted on his staff, looking out of Ayuthay and to the sloping field he had just so nearly escaped to. His features were entirely unreadable, shadowed in the dim moonlight and left as guarded and distant. He moved away from the underground portal, crossing his arms and turning so his back was to Isaac. He said nothing, and once in place, the only part of him that moved was his hair brushing through the wind.

Isaac tried again.

"Ivan, I'm begging you here. Garet and Mia are both really worried, and Karis'll probably lose it and hunt you down herself if you just don't come home. No, scratch that, she _will_, if all I cant tell her is you've gone off to Morgal."

Ivan stiffened again, head tilting his way as if he wanted to turn and face him again. "I'm fine; Karis thinks I'm-"

"Give it up, Karis knows that you're not okay. You're not fine, at all, and she knows it; Garet knows it, Mia knows it, _I _know it; you're only fooling yourself at this point!"

Ivan stood still, head half-turned, then simply shifted to look away again.

Disappointed, Isaac looked down at his hands and fell silent. It seemed Ivan had actually been under the terribly incorrect impression he was successfully faking recovery. Somehow, Ivan had gotten through this last dreadful week thinking the show he'd put on was believable. Somehow, he had missed the fact that his daughter, and his old companions, were _worried _about him.

The Wind Adept's head bowed, his hair sweeping over the base of his neck and shadowing everything but the outline of his features. He said nothing for a moment, his form very still and very tense, drawn tight like a bowstring; his staff shook against the ground, wood rattling on stone from the trembling that was now almost intrinsic.

"What do you want me say?" he asked at last, monotonous and cold. Isaac heard the unspoken half, could actually hear Ivan going on with that he would say whatever asked of him, and Isaac sighed miserably.

"The truth. ...I want you to talk to us, Ivan. Tell us why you're doing this! Why is that so difficult?"

"Because-" Ivan broke off with a frustrated sigh, rubbing his head with a shaking hand. "Because..." He groaned, rubbing the back of his neck in frustration, and didn't go on. It seemed that simple question was enough to slump him, and, resigned, Isaac leaned his head back to wait.

It was minutes before Ivan at last managed to respond again.

"I'm not going back to Kalay, Isaac."

The words were limp; defeated. Filled with what just sounded so much like _I give up, _Isaac almost could not reply.

"Why?" he asked at last.

Ivan turned to meet his eyes again, burning violet simmering with some kind of _emotion _at last, unidentifiable and harsh but at last it was emotion that he wasn't trying to hide, and Isaac would take that over the alternative. The Wind Adept stared at him for several moments, then, still utterly unreadable, he went on. "People in Kalay don't look at me like this, Isaac." When he blinked, Ivan pointed a hand to his cheek. "Eye to eye. When I was growing up there, I was just that strange child Master Hammet found and took in for reasons unknown; now, I'm a scary _Adept. _One who uses Mind Read, nonetheless." He laughed bitterly. ''They have no idea how it works... think if all I do is look then in the eye, then I'll see every thought they've ever had."

Ivan paused, then, holding his gaze still but fingers twitching like he wanted to look away. "I was- okay with that, I guess."

"No, you weren't."

Ivan's false smile faded. "...No. I wasn't. ...But, what was I supposed to do about it? If they wanted to be afraid, then that was their prerogative. It was not the first time it had unsettled people, after all." He smiled again, and this time, it was even faker than before.

"...Then, they started doing it to Karis, too."

Here, he darkened.

Isaac swallowed. "Doing-?"

"Being afraid of her! Not looking her in the eye, whispering behind her back- they were even worse with her than they were with me. And she didn't even have it." Ivan shook his head bitterly. "Parents were telling their children not to play with her because they were afraid she'd read their minds, and do something equally horrible. She even asked me about it one time, you know- I'll never forget it; she said, 'Daddy, why did Carla run away from me today'? And what was I supposed to tell her- sorry, Karis, they're just worried I've passed on my magically invasive and uncontrollable mind reading on to you?" Ivan's mirthless gaze at last left Isaac's, staring sullenly at the opposite wall as if it held the answers he needed. "...There was nothing I could do."

This explained why Karis had spent more time with Matthew and Tyrell than her friends from Kalay. She didn't have any friends from Kalay.

It also explained Ivan's far too numerous to be normal visits to the Lookout Cabin. They hadn't been for himself- they had been for Karis.

Ivan closed his eyes, hanging his head until a long section of hair shielded all but the general, resigned outline of his features. He rubbed a hand over his face, then left it there, hiding even that sparse bit of detail from view. "Things were still this bad when she left months ago, with Matthew and Tyrell. And they were still this bad when the eclipse hit. ...All things considered, I think it would be best if I just did not return."

Isaac frowned but said nothing. It took a second to control the irrational impulse to press Ivan on why he hadn't said anything before; Ivan, after all, was passive and non-confrontational. It was very likely he had simply decided to take it in stride, and moved on- and Isaac knew the last thing he would have wanted was him or Garet storming in there to yell at people. Well, specifically Garet, as he was the one in most likely to do that. But it wouldn't have helped matters, and Ivan would've hated it in the first place.

"Where would you go?" he asked instead, and Ivan shrugged noncommittally.

"I don't know yet. Contigo, maybe. Hama's temple."

Jupiter Adepts revered as gods didn't seem much Ivan's style, anymore than Kalay. But Sheba had lived there for quite a while now... perhaps their attitudes had changed. But a monk seemed even less Ivan than what he was now. They had all been surprised when he'd settled down in Kalay, ending a decade long world travel sequence that had taken him to places even Piers did not know. Now that Karis was grown, Isaac wouldn't be entirely shocked if Ivan again did something similar.

"I don't think it's a bad idea to see Sheba or your sister," he said carefully; neutrally. "Would you really like Contigo or a temple longtime, though?"

"I don't know. But I really, _really_ don't want to go to Kalay now. You, Garet, and Mia should probably head back without me. I'll look around- get in touch with you when I find somewhere good."

Isaac raised an eyebrow. It sounded like the decision was already made. "Karis will kill you, you know."

Ivan laughed hollowly. "Yes."

The lack of anything following was telling.

Isaac felt the anger rising again, and, once more, had to reign it back in.

"So- stop me if I have it wrong- you were just going to leave in the middle of the night. Not tell us where you were going and lie about when you'd be back. All this, after the eclipse and, you know, that little bit about you staying unconscious for a week and scaring the _hell _out of us all? Sorry. I guess I'm not as smart as you; I don't see the logic in there. I'm afraid you'll have to point it out to me."

Ninety percent irritation, and ten percent, relying on Mia's words, if nothing else. Mia had said to try something different. Well, waiting passively was clearly not working- perhaps provoking would. Whatever the case, provoking was something he had not tried yet, and it had a better chance of working than his current strategy of trying to let Ivan come to it and tell him himself.

Isaac did still regret it, just a little, when Ivan did not react in the slightest.

"...I don't understand," he tried again, softening when it seemed that was also going to get him nowhere. "How does you leaving Kalay relate to what happened in Kaocho?"

Now Ivan did react, twitching at the word Kaocho before his mouth turned down in a stubborn frown. One hand curled around his knee, fingers shaking minutely even as he tried to stop it and eyes turning guarded and shadowed. "Nothing happened in Kaocho, Isaac."

Isaac blinked in surprise. He looked over the Wind Adept then shook his head unsurely, completely takenaback that Ivan was actually going to try and deny it. "...Ivan, you were unconscious for a week. When we got there you didn't even recognize us, you-"

"I was physically injured, yes," Ivan said, and he shrugged carelessly. "Mia took care of it. This is all that happened, Isaac."

So- that was how Ivan wanted to put it, then.

Even now, when it was _blindingly obvious _that _something really terrible _had happened in Kaocho... Ivan just acted as if nothing was wrong.

Mia was right. He had to try something different- he had to try _anything _different he could think of, before Ivan really did go to Morgal and not come back.

Well, Ivan was acting on the premise that they knew nothing that had happened in Kaocho and taking complete advantage of it- phrasing his decisions in vague terms and his motivations in even vaguer ones, in imitation of fine and putting up a bad show of everything being okay. But, Ivan was wrong- they did know something of what had happened.

So, maybe it was time to break that illusion.

Matter of factly, Isaac faced Ivan head on and started to explain everything he already knew. There was what Kraden had figured out, and told him concerning Sveta, and then there was what Mia had deduced. Midway through, Isaac made the connection himself; from Kaocho came his problems with Mind Read, and from that came increased aversion to wanting to return to Kalay. He still went on, preferring that Ivan explain it himself. So far, they had connected all the dots- but Ivan had to at least be willing to help them do it, or they would find themselves at yet another impasse, and unable to help.

Throughout his explaination, the Wind Adept grew increasingly uneasy, suddenly no longer able to hold Isaac's gaze. His eyes darted away to the ground and the walls, anywhere but him, and his hands started twitching until he started to wring them together anxiously, lithe fingers curling around each other tightly; not even that forestalled the shaking.

When he was done, and fell silent, Ivan could not even look at him.

Isaac took a deep breath, systematically removing any hint of what could be considered accusatory or angry or even judgmental, and then he went on. "So. We know something happened in Kaocho, Ivan. And we think we know what, but I don't want to make presumptions. ...So please, just talk to us. We're your friends, right? Why is that so difficult?"

Ivan's gaze still stayed on the floor, and his features remained just as torn but ultimately unreadable. The shaking in his hands did slow, though, noticeably, and some of the tortured dilemma that consumed him seem to be resolved. He shifted uneasily, eyes still the on the ground, but then, let out a bitter laugh that just felt so unsuited to the situation it made Isaac shiver.

"Yes," Ivan said at length, "you three are wiser than I gave you credit for. However, you have still only gone as far as conjecture can take you."

There was a long pause.

Then, the dark eyes raised once again to meet his. There was not even a glimmer of emotion to be seen.

"You and Mia were right. That is- exactly what happened to me, and this Sveta, I would presume, as well. It's rather... gruesome; I think you want me to spare you the details, Isaac. The short of it is, you were right. And, no, my Mind Read does not just show me thoughts. I can see things, sometimes... feel things..." He looked away briefly, unreadable gaze coming to rest against the wall and what emotion there was now flickering in violet so quickly it was impossible for Isaac to interpret.

"The people in Kaocho were eaten alive, Isaac. And I saw it happen through their eyes."

Horror knocked him breathless.

Ivan, meanwhile, simply looked back at him, stare flat and expression utterly empty. "So, you see, Isaac, I am still not exactly open to, ah, sharing those memories with you. Nor do I think you all very much want to hear them. Perhaps I could've handled this better; I'm sure acting as though nothing was wrong left you more worried than if I had just come out and said it. But, it's too late for that. I'm not fine, though, Isaac, and that's why I'm not going back to Kalay. Sometimes, I hated it there. I think now, after everything- it would just be best if I did not return."

Isaac still had yet to recover from Ivan's revelation.

The slim adept looked away, rubbing a hand over his eyes. Then he shook his head, and again, he looked just so resigned, it hurt. "Maybe I'll go to Contigo, like I said; maybe I'll go to my sister's temple in Morgal. Maybe I'll go somewhere else entirely. But I'm not going back to Kalay with you. Not now- maybe not ever." Then, suddenly, he lowered his hand and met Isaac's eyes again, wary. "Don't try and guilt trip me into staying because of Karis. My decision is made. She's old enough to take care of herself, and at this point... I need to get away from there, more than she needs me there."

Isaac shuddered. "I wasn't about to try," he managed, his throat dry. "You- you have a reason for it. I thought you were just being stubborn, and avoiding us, but- you actually have a reason. For leaving, I mean."

Ivan tilted his head slightly, gazing at him through the fringe of his hair and the shadow of past memory. "Yes. I do, Isaac."

"And, I'm sorry for not going about this a better way. I- probably should've just talked to you before today, shouldn't I?"

Ivan laughed softly. "Perhaps that would've been best, yes. Though you could probably also blame me for not saying anything to any of you. I assumed I was fooling you... thought I could just leave, head to Morgal, and you wouldn't worry, and I would be able to resolve things myself. Guess I wasn't all that great an actor, huh?"

"Nah. We just know you too well."

The Wind Adept grinned. "Apparently."

Forcing himself to smile back, Isaac leaned forward, trying to hold Ivan's gaze. "And, please, don't just vanish without talking to me or the others. If you need to go on some soul-searching Jupiter trip, or, just get out of Kalay- that's fine. We won't stop you. But we're worried about you, Ivan. _I'm _worried about you. You're going to have to tell us not to follow you, because, otherwise, we will. If you need to be alone, then okay, but unless you want us to not let that happen... you're going to have to at least try to talk to us."

It was the truth, and as simply as he could put it. If Ivan had succeeded tonight, slipped away with nothing left behind but a written goodbye for them to wake up to, Isaac had no doubt that Garet and Mia would have gone with him to Morgal and they would've searched until they found him. After what had happened during the eclipse- after his very stilted recovery and week spent worrying them all so greatly- there was no chance on earth they would've been content to just let him disappear.

In that moment, looking on at Ivan and waiting for a response, Isaac was struck, not by how young he looked, but by how _old _he looked. Ivan had been fifteen during the Golden Sun event, and he'd looked even younger; nowadays, he could still pass for thirteen. When he'd been unconscious, one of the guards had tentatively asked if Ivan was his son.

But now, slumped as if the weight of world rested on his shoulders, drawn and face heavy with a suffering far beyond his apparent years, he at last looked his age. More so than Isaac himself.

At last, two dark eyes met his again.

"What is there to say, Isaac?" he asked simply. "I didn't know a single person in that city. And, yet, I remember them all being eaten. I have memories of- not people; mothers, sons, sisters, people I didn't know in the slightest but I felt like I loved them, seeing them just... eaten..." Ivan trailed off and shuddered through sheer revulsion, his slim frame rocked now with tremors and unbearable sorrow. "I'm sure I saw it happen to Kochiyo's family, too. They're memories that are not mine to have, and I still remember them, for better or for worse. You, Garet, Mia... you've never experienced this. I know you want to understand and help, but you _can't, _Isaac. Not every problem has an easy solution- no amount of me trying to have you three understand would get us anywhere." He shrugged again, resigned and defeated to the point where the motion was as small as possible. "It is as I said before. ...This is something I need to work out by myself."

That hurt, too.

But, it was also the truth.

Isaac sighed.

Suddenly, he felt just as defeated as Ivan.

"...You'll at least stay in contact, right?"

Ivan smiled without any real humor. "You three would worry if I didn't, right? Ha... evidently, I can't fool you, so that's really my only choice."

Isaac paused. "Don't do it because you feel like you have to-"

But Ivan waved him off, and that fake smile stayed plastered on. "No. No, that's not why I- ...look, I'm glad you stopped me. It may seem like it didn't help, but, it has, Isaac. Helped me realize, it's probably been an awful few weeks for you guys- and I haven't helped much with that. There's no reason for this to be worse than it already is. And, besides- you've already shown that you won't let things rest. You figured out much more than I expected you to, and so much quicker than I ever would've guessed. If I left you guys to your own devices, who knows what you'd come with... no, I'll keep in touch, Isaac. You don't have to be concerned."

This time, when Ivan smiled, it was genuine.

It gave Isaac what he felt he'd been missing ever since the eclipse started- hope.

Still smiling, just slightly, the Wind Adept averted his eyes pulled himself to his feet, wrapping a secure hand around his staff. "Sorry to ask this, but, can you talk to Mia and Garet for me? ...Barely got through this once; don't think I could handle it two more times."

Isaac laughed weakly. "Yeah. Sure. Whatever you need."

Ivan nodded casually back. "Thanks."

He had almost turned away when Isaac remembered.

"Hey, wait!" Jumping to his feet, he hurried forward while rooting around in his pockets. "Hey, hang on... here!"

Ivan blinked in complete confusion.

Isaac smiled sheepishly. "It's from Karis. A, uh, dream leaf. She said it guaranteed good dreams if you ate it at night. ...I waited because I figured you were under the impression you were fooling her, too."

The Wind Adept just stared blankly.

Then, he chuckled. "I'm a terrible actor, aren't I?"

"Unfortunately."

Ivan took the leaf and laughed again, smile broadening in a move from just genuine to real happiness. He clutched the dream leaf tightly to his chest and bowed his head, chuckling quietly first but letting the feeling grow until he shook with laughter. Isaac let out a weak chuckle of his own, half strangled first, then decided to finally release the chokehold he'd had on his own emotions for this entire cursed week and laugh with him.

Ivan slipped to his knees first, then Isaac followed. The lithe hand that found his shoulder was unexpected but another beacon of foreign hope that made his smile even stronger, unrestrained joy of the finality of it all claiming him at last and easing away the horror until there was nothing left but the memory of it.

Memory remained a powerful force, truth be told- Ivan was living proof of it.

But the past was still not important than the present.

"Karis is going to murder me when she finds out about this, isn't she?" Ivan gasped out, shaking his head at himself. "I should be glad I won't be there to see it!"

"What, and leave the telling her to me as well? I hope you come to my funeral..."

Ivan grinned. "So long as you don't fake your death to get me to come home."

"Deal."

Ivan met his eyes again, leaning back against the wall with an easy grace that eclipsed the stiff tension that had been so familiar in him as of late. One corner of his mouth still pulled up in a beaming smile, and the darkness that had so recently haunted his eyes was gone. If Isaac hadn't already been smiling, that would've done it, no question.

"Thanks, Isaac," Ivan said, lightly. Then, more seriously, "Thank you. ...For everything."


End file.
